Eating healthy is a habit that should start from a young age, because it’s something that usually stays with you through life.

So, what would you do if you saw a loved one being allowed to develop unhealthy habits and their parent refused to do anything about it?

In today’s story, a sister tries looking out for her brother, but things don’t go as planned.

Here’s what happened.

AITA for telling my obesity-enabling stepmom that she’s ruining her son’s life?

I (F22) have a stepmom (F40), and she has an 11-year-old kid with my father. Let’s call him Cal.

My half-brother Cal is obese – 79 Kgs.

Cal is an extremely picky eater. There are only 4-5 dishes that he eats. One of these is French fries.

He eats fries as a meal, not as a side to anything, and the quantity is equivalent of about 2.5 packs of McDonald’s large fries.

In an average week, he ends up eating fries 6-8 times, with other meals being rice with some sort of gravy or curry, topped with lots of potato chips for the crunch (sounds weird, tastes great).

The stepmom doesn’t make her son eat anything with nutritional value.

There are literally NO vegetables or fruits in his diet, apart from an occasional apple.

He does not eat chicken, eggs, meat, fish, or any other type of protein, except for the big, tall glass of chocolate milk he has every day, which is packed with sugar.

My stepmom, who is also obese, has allowed this to go on for 11 years without ever trying to change his eating habits.

I get that she has a lot on her plate (no shade intended), but she has never put an effort to get him to try new and healthy foods.

She asks once or twice, but when he begins to throw tantrums, as children do, she budges.

She won’t even accept advice about his diet.

I have told her multiple times that she should just let him stay hungry for a few meals if he is so reluctant to try foods that are good for him.

She responds by calling me heartless for wanting my brother to “starve.”

Eventually, over the years, I began giving her suggestions like air-frying his fries instead of deep-frying them, but she said that he can always tell when they are air-fried and that he rejects them.

So, today, my mom left for work as she usually does after lunch at around 1:30 and instructed me to provide Cal with cookies and milk for snacks at around 4 pm.

Here’s where things start to get tense.

Cal eats 6 chocolate chip cookies dipped in chocolate milk every day for his evening snack.

But today, he didn’t ask for it. So, I did not offer.

When stepmom came home at 6, she was MAD that I “starved” him.

Cal told her that he did not want them today, to which she said, “Oh, so your sister got inside your head?”

I said, “I am not going to offer an obese child unhealthy processed food unprompted. Cal can’t even play outside because he is physically unable to, and all he does is play video games all day. You are ruining his life like you ruined mine and yours.”

Both parents are on the same page this time.

She told me I have no right to decide how she raises her child because I don’t understand how difficult motherhood is, and started crying loudly.

My father, who usually sides with me on matters related to Cal’s diet and weight, called me an ungrateful ***** for making her cry after all she does for us.

As a former fat kid, I am deeply concerned for his lifestyle and well-being and don’t want him to go through all the things that I did.

My stepmom’s behavior is clearly enabling him.

AITA?

Yikes! The stepmom is enough to deal with, but that dad – he took it a little too far.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit have to say about this story.

As this person points out, obesity can make your life harder.

The stepmom does need to stop and think about what she’s doing to him.

This is interesting. They should look into it.

Here’s some excellent advice.

She’s coming from a good place.

It’s a shame her parents don’t listen because that poor boy will probably grow up with many chronic health conditions.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.