Teaching your kids how to eat healthy can set them up for a lifetime of better choices so they can avoid health and weight problems in the future.

What would you do if you had one child who was not very active and needed more help to get in shape?

Would you put the whole family on a  healthy diet even if it made everyone upset? Or would you focus on helping the one child who struggles with weight make healthier choices?

That is the situation the mom in this story is dealing with.

Let’s read all the details.

AITA for forcing my family to eat healthy?

I (44F) have 3 kids: 16M (James), 15F (Liana), and 12F (Sarah).

James is 5’9 and about 160 pounds, which is perfectly healthy.

Liana is 5’5 and at 149 pounds, which seems pretty normal, and I’m not concerned because she and James are both very active.

However, Sarah is only 5’2 and weighs about 155, and she refuses to participate in sports and such because it makes her feel self conscious.

Liana wanted to go out to eat with her friends.

To try and counter this, I’ve taken to making much healthier, lighter meals, taking away soda and unhealthy snacks (like potato chips and snack cakes), and taking family walks after dinner.

One incident being: This week, Liana had 6 1/2 hours of dance practice a day (it’s a special prep camp) and became upset because I packed her a lunch instead of allowing her to go out to eat during her lunch break.

I packed her a salad and a few turkey wraps most days, along with a few sides like hard boiled eggs.

I gave her enough food to have energy during practice, but she became mad because the dance team at her school has a habit of all going out to eat in small groups/sometimes as one big group and basically carb loading and eating all the junk food they want during intensive weeks/days like these because “all the calories will burn off anyways”.

Her husband thinks she’s being too strict.

My husband (44M) took her side.

My husband says it’s unfair to be so strict on James and Liana who are much more active than Sarah is.

He told me that I shouldn’t be expecting my more active children to eat the same diet as Sarah and that I was setting unfair expectations among my eldest two children.

She defending her decision.

In addition, he told me that I shouldn’t be completely banning sweet treats from the house because James and Liana knew how to eat them in moderation.

My husband told me that I was going to make James and Liana resent me for this, and I rebutted by saying that it was unfair for us to expect our obese child to diet by herself and this argument continued on.

Am I wrong for forcing my whole family to eat healthy?

AITA?

Each person needs a diet that works for them so they can be happy and healthy. Forcing a ‘one size fits all’ solution isn’t going to work and it will make people upset.

Let’s see what the people in the comments on Reddit think about this situation.

Not sure I agree with this comment.

This person says mom is being short sighted.

Here is someone who grew up in a similar situation and didn’t like it.

This commenter makes a good point.

This person says she is teaching unhealthy habits.

Teaching good eating habits is important, but difficult.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.