AITA: Ate Ice Cream In Front of Crying Toddler

It can be so difficult to balance keeping a child happy and meeting your own needs.

What about when it comes to strangers who have something that YOUR child wants? How would you deal with this situation?

Boundaries are essential, and how we handle situations can shape how our child learns to regulate their emotions and learn that they cannot have every single thing that they want as soon as they clap their eyes on it. One person took to the Reddit AITA (Am I The Asshole) board to share a very awkward story involving an ice cream, an entitled stranger, and the stranger's screaming toddler.

Read the full post below...

"I (25F) had to travel to a city 6 hours away for college related work. The trip was pretty tight. I had to leave on Thursday night by train and reached the city on Friday early morning, was engaged in work till the evening and then take a train to get back home on friday night itself. When I got into the train at about 10 PM, I still hadn’t had dinner. I was exhausted. I happened to share my cabin in the train with a middle aged woman and her toddler.

There was around 30 mins left for the train to start so I went out of the train, quickly got some snacks and ice-cream and got back to the cabin. I decided to have the ice-cream first because I didn’t want it to melt. The toddler saw it and starting asking for it. I just looked at the mom and she goes “give it to my son and buy yourself a new one”. I was taken aback because she wasn’t even requesting, she was demanding. I was wayyy too exhausted to take any crap from anyone (old or young). I continued having the ice cream and told the woman “the shop is right there and they have all flavours”. The toddler starts crying loudly and I plugged in headphones. The mom started yelling at me and said things like “you’re a brat”, “you’re heartless for doing this to a child”, “you’re trying to make me miss the train” and other things I couldn’t hear because I put the music in full volume. I did not feel guilty about finishing the ice-cream in front of a crying toddler because I was really pissed at the moment. NGL, I felt bad for the kid sometime later and thought of offering him some chips but I didn’t want to engage in any form of conversation with the mom. The remainder of the journey was in utter silence.

I told my boyfriend about this after I came back home and he thinks it’s hilarious but my mom was not happy about this. She was more shocked than angry because I have always been great with kids and she couldn’t believe that I would do that to a kid even if the mom was annoying. My mom guilt tripped me so much that my “hangry” state got the best of me.

So the unbiased people of reddit, AITA?"

Read the full thread here on Reddit.

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What was the general consensus?

The overall verdict was that the poster is absolutely NTA - but the mother of the crying child absolutely is, for expecting a stranger to give her child food in such an entitled manner instead of teaching the little one that the ice cream doesn't belong to them. The top voted comment was pretty on-point...

"I'm sorry sweetheart, that's not our ice cream, that belongs to the lady. If you're hungry, I have some Cheerios for you. I know you want it, but it doesn't belong to us. I promise, we can have ice cream tomorrow, as long as you eat all your vegetables."

Children regularly see people eat things in public that they are not allowed to have (at least not in that moment). Good parents have a spiel ready. Exhausted (but still decent) parents may forget their spiel and may implore strangers to share...that doesn't mean that you are obligated to turn over something you want for yourself, but you should be kind to them when you say no. If they're good people, they'll accept your no and try to move on (and probably be embarrassed about it later)

Rude parents demand things for their kids. AH parents refuse to accept the word no, and then proceed to have a childish temper tantrum themselves.

Would you have handled the situation in a better way had the mother not been an AH or if you had not been hungry and exhausted yourself? Probably. But you were definitely NTA"

Our verdict...

We think that the mother of the child was extremely rude and presumptive. Had she kindly asked the poster to nip back and purchase another for her child, giving them the cash, it might have been a different matter, but this situation is beyond the pale. Do we feel bad for the toddler? Absolutely, we can't help but feel upset for them, but more because their mum didn't try to explain or teach them that the ice cream wasn't for them, so they were left in a state of distress rather than soothed and calmed down with a suitable explanation.

Also, we can't help put point out, what if the poster had a medical condition like diabetes and was having a hypo? They shouldn't have to share private medical information to excuse them not giving up their ice cream for a stranger's child but we certainly do wonder what the mum's reaction would have been if this was the case...

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