A mother has sparked a debate online after revealing she threw a six-year-old girl's lunch into the trash as punishment for her stealing her daughter's lunchbox.
The unnamed woman took to Reddit's infamous AITA (Am I The A**hole) forum to share her story, explaining why she took such drastic action - and it's safe to say she got a pretty big response.
She explained: "So my (25F) sister bought my daughter (6F) a bento box that cost 50 dollars. Before anybody get on here and trying to s**t on why a 6 year old needs a 50 dollar lunch box, it’s not your money so it doesn’t matter.
"Thursday after school my daughter came home and while unpacking her backpack like I usually do I noticed that her bento box was not in there. When I asked her where it was she stated that a girl in her class named Audrey (fake name) had taken it and refused to give it back. I asked if she went to her teacher and she said yes but her teacher told her that it’s just a lunchbox and it shouldn’t matter."
She revealed that she recognized the name because she was part of a group of girls that "always picked on" her daughter, which she had complained about to the school multiple times, but found nothing was done to stop it.
The mom added: "To say I was p**sed was the least, the next day I went to the school 30 minutes before lunch time and requested a meeting with the teacher and the principle. They brought my daughter down and I explained the situation and they had someone get Audrey.
"Audrey brought the lunchbox to 'prove' that it was hers but I asked them to open the lunch box because my daughters name was inside and long behold when she opened it there was my daughters name as clear as day.
"When I requested she give it back to my daughter she begin crying. The teacher asked if it would be okay if Audrey kept it for the day since her food was already in there and I said hell no and they had 5 minutes to find something else to put her food in or I would be dumping it out."
She stated that instead of finding an alternative container for Audrey's lunch, the teacher and principal started to argue with her, which caused her to take drastic action.
"Instead of finding her a closed container they begin arguing with me so I stood up and grabbed the bento box and in front of all them I threw the food out into the trash can," she said. "Grabbing my daughter’s hand I walked out the office with the bento box leaving them to comfort the crying girl."
When the mom told her sister, who'd bought the bento box in the first place, what she'd done, her sister said that she had a right to be mad but could have let Audrey have the box and she'd have bought her niece another one, however, the mother said it was more about the "principle" of her not having to rebuy the lunchbox because someone else had taken it.
After getting comments saying that she should have just taken the food out of the lunch box instead of throwing it away, the mom clarified that as it was a bento box, the food wasn't in any packaging as it would go straight into the container, which could even hold soup.
She also revealed that Audrey wasn't left hungry either as the school offers free lunches for its pupils, adding: "Audrey did NOT starve, I did not leave her without a lunch. The school offers free lunches.
"She can afford her own damn bento box. We live in DFW [Dallas Fort Worth] in a fairly high class neighborhood. She took my daughter bento because she’s a bully."
The mom also revealed that she would be putting her daughter into a different school once the semester ended after being unhappy with the way the bullying had been handled by the staff.
People immediately took to the comments to share their thoughts, with one writing: "You should have dumped the food on the principal's desk. I mean come on, Didn't have to be the trash. But you were right, the entitled little kid did not deserve to keep your daughters bento box. I'm going to go NTA [not the a**hole]."
Others added: "NTA. When somebody steals from you, their convenience shouldn't factor in. Sounds like the staff are incompetent. Go above the principals head and complain about the issues with bullying and staff protecting bullies."
Another wrote: "NTA Am I the only one who doesn't care if Audrey misses a meal? Maybe it'll teach her a lesson."
One joked: "YTA [you're the a**hole], for not dumping it out on the principals head", to which the mum quipped back: "if there’s a next time I will".
Thankfully, the mother later shared another update telling people invested in the saga that Audrey hasn't bothered her daughter since having her own lunch unceremoniously dumped in the trash, and that she'd tried to speak to Audrey's mother to settle things but she is "as insufferable as it gets."
She also received a "very sincere apology" from the principal and her daughter's homeroom class was switched to give her a new teacher that she "loves", but she will still be homeschooling her from next year.
