When this 16-year-old got tired of gross cafeteria food, he took matters into his own hands by packing healthy lunches.

But when his mom demanded he do the same for his younger siblings—the ones who don’t respect his boundaries—he decided to quit making lunches entirely.

Is he being selfish, or just setting fair limits?

AITA for being so against making my siblings packed lunch for school that I won’t make mine anymore?

I (16m) got so sick of the lunches at school in the last year. They’re trash and nothing ever tastes good. Nothing’s all that healthy either.

So back in December I decided that after Christmas I’d make my own packed lunch in the mornings.

My parents were cool with it at first and my dad thought it was good for me because he and mom only have basic cooking and meal prep skills so he was happy to see someone in the household do stuff.

A perfect solution.

I ended up with a really nice rotation of lunches. In April my mom told me I should make lunch for my siblings (14, 13 and 11) too.

I told her that was not happening and she should encourage them to make their own if they want something else.

Mom told me it wasn’t a big ask and my siblings deserved better food too. I told her they deserve better from her then but not me.

No thanks.

The reason I was so against this is my siblings have no boundaries where I’m concerned.

They think they can take my stuff, come into my room without knocking or asking, they can demand I walk them to friends houses when mom and dad are busy and so many other annoying things.

It’s not like the worst thing ever but it means I don’t wanna do stuff for them.

Makes perfect sense.

My dad acknowledges and works on this stuff with my siblings and he’s punished them for taking stuff from me before. But my mom always dismisses it as oldest kid problems (she’s the youngest in her family).

Me and mom argued about it for weeks. Dad told her to stop putting it on me and he pointed out my siblings don’t complain about the lunches.

Mom said it wasn’t even the point and she was mad dad didn’t back her up but also that I was digging in my heels so much and wouldn’t listen to her as my mom. She said it was a respect thing.

Oof.

Dad got mom to back off for maybe two weeks but once school was out for summer she was telling me starting when school returns in August I better be prepared to make lunch for everyone.

I told her it wasn’t happening and she needed to accept it. She told me I couldn’t use food purchased for the household if I’m going to be this selfish.

I told her that was fine, I just won’t make my lunch anymore and I’ll go back to trash my school serves.

Ouch.

Mom expected me to give in and make lunch for everyone and she called me a spoiled child for going this far with it.

I told her I didn’t care and she was not making me give in.

Dad told me I could carry on making my lunches but it led to another fight between him and mom and mom saying I was behaving like a selfish brat and they raised me better than that. AITA?

Sometimes standing your ground means going without, especially when no one respects your “no” the first dozen times.

This person says Mom is going to do some pretty severe damage here.

This persons says it’s not a teen boy’s job to be the parent.

And this person is just in plain shock.

Who knew a packed lunch could lead to a full-on family food fight?

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.