One dad and his spouse were judged harshly by a close family member for how they introduced food to their kids.

Their laid-back, variety-first approach was labeled as “bad parenting” and led to a years-long rift.

But now that the judgmental sister is struggling with her own stubborn eater, she’s suddenly interested in that “failing” method—and her help.

Only catch?

They want an apology first.

Check it out.

AITA for refusing to help my sister come up with ways to feed her picky eater until she apologizes to me and my wife for calling us bad parents who were failing their kids?

I (33m) have three children (8, 7 and 4) with my wife (32f).

When our 8 and 7 year old were toddlers I stopped speaking to my sister (outside of civil hi’s and bye’s when we saw each other) because she called us bad parents who were failing their kids over how we chose to feed our kids and introduce food to them.

This was not an isolated comment and she had been making judgmental comments on how we feed our kids for a while.

That comment was just the last straw for me.

We took the approach of not forcing them to clear their plates, not forcing them to try everything on their plate and offering a big variety of foods.

None of our kids had issues with food.

But we never wanted food to be a struggle.

So if they didn’t touch something offered or rejected something we tried to feed them that was okay.

They could eat the rest.

We’d try something new on the plate for a few months and if they never touched it or tried once and spat it out we took it out of rotation at that point.

We typically reintroduced something after more than a year and if it wasn’t a hit again we shelved it entirely.

If there was something our kids didn’t like we’d try to cook or present it in different ways to see if it would help.

Where’s bad?

There is very little our kids don’t eat.

They’re very willing to try new stuff now as a result.

Some things are unappealing to them so it takes them a while to try if there isn’t a complaint about the texture.

Overall we’re very happy with the outcome and we feel like our methods worked for our family.

My sister was always a believer in kids eat what they’re served, they need to eat three bites of everything, can’t say they don’t like something, won’t get anything made to cater to their wants and they won’t starve themselves so they’ll give in eventually.

We never asked her to do what we did or talked about how she did it but she judged me and my wife anyway and spoke down to me like a kid instead of her five years younger brother.

Okay, none of your business though, Sis.

Now my sister has a child who is not going along with the things she believed.

She has an extremely picky eater who will not touch most of the food they encounter and will go hungry rather than eat.

They refuse to take three bites of everything.

They refuse to touch some things even when pushed to.

And they eat less and less the more she pushes.

So now she wants my help. She wants advice.

She told me she’s ready to explode and I need to teach her.

I told her I’d only help if she apologizes to me and my wife for the comments she made.

I told her I did not forget what she said and I would not brush it under the rug like it never happened.

I said she went too far and she never apologized or expressed regret for calling us bad parents who were failing their kids.

I told her that’s not something you just overlook when the person comes running to you for help.

Serves her right.

She’s saying I’m holding my help hostage over this and I need to get over myself and who cares if she judges me and thinks we’re not the kind of parents she’d want to be.

I told her she shouldn’t come to me for help with this if she doesn’t want to be like me.

AITA?

The tables have turned, and the once-condemned parenting style is looking pretty appealing now.

But instead of owning up to her past comments, the sister is doubling down and demanding help—no apologies, no reflection.

Reddit thought her boundary was more than fair, especially after years of unsolicited criticism.

This person says NTA at all.

This person has been there before.

And this person is amazed at the bad parenting here (on the sister’s side).

Wanna eat humble pie?

You gotta order a side of apology first.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.