This Mom Refused to Give Her Son Extra Allowance so He Could Buy Breakfast After Swim Practice

Teenagers are exhausting, so it's no wonder many parents take to social media to vent about their teen kids! Take it from this woman in the popular "Am I the A------" (AITA) subreddit, who complained about her 15-year-old son and his inability to make his own breakfast.

The original poster, who goes by the handle u/Confident-Ear-9728, said she refused to give her son extra allowance so he could buy breakfast after swim practice. As a result, he went through the first half of school starving.

Read on for the whole story. Plus, stick around to hear what the internet has to say.

The OP revealed that everyone in her family gets an allowance, including her 15-year-old son. She added that he's a swimmer and has practice at 5:45 a.m. three times a week. He goes to school right after, and since he doesn't have the time to eat breakfast at home, he'll buy something from the school cafe. As a result, the OP's son blows through his allowance rather quickly.

She noted that her daughters don't buy breakfast; they eat before school or skip altogether, so they don't need more allowance money. On the other hand, the OP's son recently approached and asked for extra money because he was hungry. She refused, telling him he could eat before practice or pack himself something to eat.

The mother-son duo got into a "huge argument," with the OP's son calling her a jerk. To make matters worse, the OP's ex (and her son's father) got involved and called the OP an AH for refusing to lend a few bucks to their hungry kid. But is she actually an AH? Read on to find out what Reddit has to say about her.

Although some agreed that the OP wasn't the AH, many others pointed out that as their mother, she's responsible for her kids' health and should teach them how to take care of themselves.

"YTA, but not for the money. Your son is struggling with planning. It's your job as a parent to work with the 15 year old and help him plan," one person wrote. "Why not make breakfast the night before? You can help him make that part of his routine. ... Stop watching your son struggle and help him by guiding his planning."

A second Reddit user agreed, stating, "Teaching him meal planning could be a wonderful way to spend time together, too. Kids that age, especially athletic ones, are HUNGRY."

"Your kid is going hungry and you basically told him to deal with it in some other way," another person said. "Your job as the parent of a minor child is to feed him or teach him how to feed himself. Instead, you seem to just think of him as a nuisance because he can't buy enough food with the money you gave him."

A fourth Redditor commented, "YTA, but I'm not siding with all the people saying you should handle this for him. He's 15. He could pack his own food. I'm saying it because I guarantee he is sitting there with the whole swim team while everyone eats school breakfast and doesn't want to be the odd one.

"You're the AH because you aren't paying attention," they added. "No teenager is going to spend their fun money on food if it isn't something like all the kids do [for] school breakfast."

In the end, the OP edited the post and said she would show her son how to pack a breakfast — but she seemed less than enthusiastic about it. She said it would likely "go over extremely poorly," as she would pretty much tell him that he didn't know how to put food in a bag.

What do you think? Was the OP wrong, or should her son know how to feed himself? Let us know!