A mother was left shocked by another parent’s bizarre request not to put fresh berries in her daughter’s school lunchbox.
Steph, a mother of four from Sydney, turned to TikTok for advice after receiving a message from her daughter’s friend’s mother asking her not to give her eight-year-old daughter the healthy treats because her own daughter wanted them too.
The mother explained to Steph that she couldn’t afford to give her daughter fresh berries for lunch and didn’t want to “upset” her.
Steph took to social media to air her grievances, sparking an online debate.
“A part of me feels bad… they play together and she can’t afford strawberries and blueberries, I get it,” she told her followers on TikTok.
“But then why should my daughter miss out?”
Steph asked viewers for advice on how to handle the situation.
“I don’t want conflict, but I don’t know,” he said.
Sydney’s mum Steph (pictured) was left shocked after her daughter’s friend’s mother asked her to stop packing fresh berries for her son’s lunch.
Viewers who weighed in on the lunchbox saga were divided.
Some offered Steph helpful advice, while others believed the other mother was wrong.
“Send more and tell your son it’s for him and his friend,” one parent suggested.
Another added that they would be “sending additional blueberries and strawberries.”
However, Steph said in a comment that students “can’t share” food at school due to strict rules, adding that her daughter “always offers and then gets in trouble.”
Some viewers suggest that Steph go the extra mile to buy food or plant land for the other mom.
“You buy the berries and bring them to her house so her mother can put them in her daughter’s lunch box,” one wrote.
Steph sarcastically replied, “Yes, because I’m going to go to her house (15 minutes there and 15 minutes back) and drop her off shopping every week so her daughter can have the same things as mine, even though I have four children of my own to care for.”
The mother said she couldn’t buy fresh berries for her daughter and asked Steph to stop doing so because it made her daughter jealous (file image)
Steph said the issue “shouldn’t even be something” to worry about during a cost-of-living crisis.
“At first I felt uncomfortable, like I was doing something wrong, like I was in the minority of mothers sending this type of fruit… but I quickly realized I was just making what my daughter liked for her fruit break,” she said. Yahoo.
‘I won’t change what I pack (for my daughter)’
‘As always, she chooses the fruit she likes the most and I will continue to pack what she likes.’
Other viewers backed Steph’s stance on the issue, saying it was a “perfect teaching opportunity for the other parents around you: you can’t always get what you want.”
“As difficult as it may be, this is not your problem, you have every right to send berries to your daughter,” wrote one.
Another added: “Keep doing what you’re doing, their situation is not your responsibility. Full stop,” said another.
A financially struggling mother who revealed she was in a similar situation to the other mother and can’t afford the same food as other parents may have some surprising advice to offer.
“Sometimes my son asks me for them and I can’t afford them and I just tell him ‘not this time buddy, they’re too expensive,'” he wrote.
-It’s not your problem, keep giving them to her (your daughter).
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