A Mom Got Upset After Her Kid Ate Cake At A Birthday Party & Reddit Has *Thoughts*

Kids’ birthday parties can be surprisingly fraught for parents. The rules are loosened, the kids are maybe a bit wilder than usual, and of course there is often cake involved, which was a problem for one parent on the internet. In a viral post shared on Reddit, a mom shared that she doesn’t allow her son to eat sugar, so when one of his friends gave him a slice of birthday cake at a party, she got upset.

The mom recently posted about her experience in the popular sub-Reddit group “Am I The A**hole.” In it, she explained that her 8-year-old son had been invited to a friend’s birthday party where there would be a cake. “I don't let my son have any/much junk food at all and usually he brings his own snacks (for this incident it was carrot sticks and ranch) to events that have a lot of sugary foods,” she explained, adding that this birthday party was to be hosted by her own best friend who “bakes a lot and made a special chocolate cake for her son’s birthday.” A cake her son was not permitted to eat as a “personal preference for his health, not for any allergy reasons, and he is not diabetic or gluten free. My son knows he isn't allowed to have cake because of the additives.”

Apparently the birthday boy didn’t agree. “When he told his best friend this at the party, his friend apparently got upset and told him it was ‘good cake,’ not bad like I say, because his mom made it, and it was his birthday cake,” she wrote. “My son ate cake, got a sugar rush, and crashed, making him cranky for the rest of the day after we left the party.”

The Reddit mom asked her friend to give the birthday boy “consequences” for giving her son cake, but she refused. “She said because it wasn't an issue of allergies or health, that she's sorry my son was cranky but she won't be punishing her son or talking to him about it on his birthday,” the mom explained.

While the mom let her son stay for the rest of the party, she wants her friend to teach her son about “boundaries and respect.” And the people of Reddit had some thoughts about the whole thing. As one Reddit user chimed in, “Making any food taboo or forbidden is a one street straight to your son having a super messed up relationship with food and will only make him gorge on sugary foods whenever he can get his hands on them. A good rule that I’ve adopted is ‘everything in moderation.’ A little sugar won’t kill him!”

Another parent offered their own take as vegan parents going to birthday parties. “We are vegan, but birthdays are all go for my kids, they can have cake and snacks that are not vegan at a birthday party, because it’s about celebrating friendships,” they commented.

Another Redditor took umbrage with the whole “sugar rush” aspect. “FYI - ‘sugar rushes’ are a myth. They have been debunked many many many times by scientists and medical professionals.” (Indeed, scientists from the University of Connecticut have said that there is “no such thing” as a sugar rush and described it as a “popular myth.”)

The general consensus appeared to be that being so restrictive for a child’s diet, especially at a birthday party, could potentially cause problems down the road. Some voiced concerns that eating disorders could develop down the road, or at the very least an unhealthy relationship with food.

Sometimes, it seems, you really should just let them eat cake.