Woman Is Done with Gentle Parenting after Constant Verbal Attacks and Hysterics from Her Daughter

A mother opened up about a quarrel she had with her 12-year-old daughter after she started a vegetarian diet. The woman did not like the mean comments she made to the rest of the family for eating meat, but after one too many remarks, the mother could not keep up with the gentle parenting anymore.

A mother took it to Reddit to share how she made her daughter cry. After much reflection, she realized where she had gone wrong, but her daughter fired back with an attitude that made her lose her cool.

The 45-year-old mother explained that her 12-year-old daughter wanted to go vegetarian. The mother fully supported her but would get irritated at her daughter's remarks about everyone eating meat.

The Original Poster (OP) said her daughter would comment, "You know that will just sit in your colon, right? [...] It doesn't make you THE murderer, but it definitely makes you the accomplice." It was not only the parents who did not like the remarks; their seven-year-old son also got tired of them.

The mother did not want to come home after a long day at work to listen to these comments. She just wanted to enjoy her meal and relax. When it was her son's birthday, the family visited one of his favorite restaurants.

The OP knew they had vegetarian options, so she was not worried about what her daughter would eat. The waiter came to take their order, but the mother was shocked when her 12-year-old ordered a hamburger. "Woah, I thought you wanted to go vegetarian?" asked the OP.

Her daughter responded, "I'm taking a break since it's a special occasion." But the OP was unwilling to allow that after all the mean things she had been saying to everyone.

So the OP told the waiter to give them a minute and turned to her daughter to say to her that she had been rude to everyone since she went vegetarian and could not just decide to eat meat because it suited her. "You either commit to it now, or you get nothing at all," emphasized the Redditor.

The 12-year-old put her head on the table, started crying, and did not move her head for the rest of the dinner. The mother asked her if she wanted them to talk outside or if she needed to get herself together in the bathroom, but she did not respond to anything.

The Redditor's husband thought she was wrong for what she said to their little girl and blamed her for ruining the evening. But the OP explained that she had been dealing with her daughter telling everyone how bad meat was just for her to decide to eat it randomly.

However, she admitted that she was wrong for letting that consume the rest of the evening and affect her son's birthday. But she still dealt with comments about taking years from her life span every time she ate meat. The mother would try to discipline her and tell her to stop being rude or take her phone away.

But her daughter would just storm off and start crying. Eventually, she stopped saying those things to her parents. However, her brother said she still called him a "loser" for eating hotdogs. Again, the OP would try to tell her daughter there were other ways to educate people about vegetarianism.

The mother even apologized for how she handled the situation at the restaurant and reiterated, "But you saying mean things to us for eating meat, calling your brother a loser for eating a hot dog, and then turning around and ordering a burger in front of him is very hypocritical of you. I need you to understand that we have been very supportive these past few weeks, and we don't deserve that treatment. Ok?"

To show her support, the mother offered to take her daughter shopping and help her find better meat substitutes and meal options, but her daughter did not appreciate the offer. She continued to watch TV and eventually shouted, "OH MY GAWD, IM TRYING TO WATCH MY SHOW! CAN YOU UNDERSTAND THAT!? (sic)"

The OP lost it. "She screamed at me! I'm sorry y'all, but I was done with gentle parenting at this point," she wrote. Without getting into much detail about what happened that day, she told readers that she changed the Wifi password, booked an appointment with a therapist, and grounded her daughter from a few things in the summer.

Her daughter cried, but this time, she did not walk away; she stood her ground and threatened to show her friends and TikTok followers how she was behaving. The OP felt she tried to be supportive but could no longer handle her daughter's attitude.

People in the comments were divided; some agreed with the OP and said unconditional love did not mean enabling bad behavior. Others thought she was wrong for making a scene at the restaurant and ruining the day for everyone.

Commenters thought the OP could not have said anything when her daughter told her she was taking a break from her vegetarian diet. Others emphasized that the 12-year-old was about to become a teenager, which came with many changes, so the mother-daughter relationship would also go through a transition.

Here is a story about a father who took away his daughter's Christmas gifts after she mistreated his wife.