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Teaching children to share is important, but so is showing them that other people are allowed to say no.

Suppose two kids chose different pastries and one later regretted his order – would you make his brother hand over part of his treat, or let both boys live with their choices?

That small disagreement leaves one uncle defending his nephew’s right to keep the apple pastry he selected, while his girlfriend argues that sharing should have been required.

Check out why one dessert sparked a bigger parenting debate.

AITA for not making my nephews share the apple chausson?

I(28) have two nephews. ‘John’(12) and ‘Tim’(11). My girlfriend(26) and I are watching them while my sister and brother in law are on a work trip.

Yesterday, I went to a bakery and sent my gf a picture of the pastries and their labels. Asked her if she and the kids wanted anything. Also told her that their apple chausson is quite popular.

She and Tim ended up asking for one each, while John asked for a chocolate croissant.

John changed his mind.

After I microwaved the stuff, John said the apple chaussons smelled pretty good and asked Tim if he could have some.

Tim just shook his head.

My girlfriend told Tim to share his with John but I told him he doesn’t have to.

I got John his own chausson today but my gf still says that we should teach children how to share.

They’re not the parents. They don’t really have to feel responsible for teaching the kids to share.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Why didn’t the girlfriend share?

Lessons were learned that day.

“No” is a complete sentence.

This person agrees that the girlfriend could’ve shared.

It’s also important to learn that you can’t always get what you want.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a grandson who is tired of driving 5 hours one way to work on his grandparent’s investment property for free.

In this case, the story shows that generosity means more when it is offered freely instead of demanded by someone else.

A fair trade or a voluntary bite could have solved the problem, but forcing one nephew to sacrifice his dessert would have ignored the choice he already made.

Maybe the girlfriend genuinely wanted to teach kindness, although respecting boundaries and accepting disappointment were valuable lessons too.

The only truly questionable decision here may have been putting fresh pastries in the microwave.