16-year-old screams at her aunt for mixing her potatoes, meat, and salad together at a restaurant: 'The rest of the meal was awkward.'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Dec 20, 2025 8:00 PM EST

Her aunt should not have done that, but she has a history of behaving like this. 

We all have things in our lives that we want to scream and stomp about, but we don't because it's frightening and hurtful to the people around us. Imagine if every time you did something that made someone else feel bad, they started yelling at you and telling you how much they hate you. If you grew up in a family that was like this, I'm sorry that this was your reality. It is not one that anyone can live with and come out unscathed. 

While it's important to be honest about how you're feeling, nothing gets solved by throwing a tantrum. You always want to be the bigger person when someone is wronging you, and you will never be the bigger person by yelling, "I hate you" to your cousin for being passive aggressive towards you at the family reunion. Just because you have big feelings doesn't mean that you have the liberty to express them in the most uncharitable manner. It doesn't matter if you have mental health issues or if it's your birthday. You need to learn how to regulate your emotions sometime. 

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  • The teen in this story was genuinely wronged. Her aunt messed with her food when she specifically asked her food to be served in a particular way. However, the way she reacted to her aunt's actions were totally unbecoming of a 16-year-old young woman, and her mom is wrong for enabling such behavior.

  • A person is smiling wide with their mouth open
    via Fellipe Ditadi (Unsplash+)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Am I wrong for yelling at my aunt at a restaurant?

    I (16f) and my parents, my grandma and my aunt (47-50 idk her age) who happened to be in the city, went to a restaurant as a small birthday dinner because I spent my birthday with my friends.
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • For context, my aunt has hated me for a while now, since when I was 12-13 I was rude to her in every ocassion. I was depressed, not to justify it, but certainly I didn't care about others if I didn't care about
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • myself. I apologized when I turned 15 but she didn't budge, and keeps on hating me subtly. (like giving me the worse presents, refusing to visit where she lives, etc).
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • My mom and I hate her, but she went because my grandma asked it and also because she's family and my dad's sister.
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • I ordered meat with smashed potatos and a salad, but the meat had something on top. like a sauce with vegetables. I explicitly asked to have my meat without that because I am very sensible and have a
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • complicated relationship with textures in food, anything could make me vomit just because of the texture, and I hate when the food is all mixed up and not separated. My aunt is aware of this since I visited
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • Vegetable and meat on bowl
    via Anh Nguyen

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • her house and she had to give me food. When the food arrived, she took my plate, moved the smashed potatos over the meat, sprinkled some of the
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • salad on top of it and said "this is a great combination, you have to take it." Even if the smashed potatos is typically easy to take off, this was particularly sticky and
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • Crispy smashed potatoes with herbs on baking sheet
    via Monika Grabkowska (Unsplash+)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • stuck to the meat even if I took it all off, there was still, which made me angry and I got up from the seat telling her why she would do that and that she was a b*tch in front of the whole restaurant, I went to the
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • bathroom to cry and my mom accompanied me. The rest of the meal was awkward.
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • My grandma and dad said that I was so rude to her and embarrased her in front of the whole restaurant and I HAD to apologize to her for being so mean. AITA?
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • Decent-Historian-207 ESH. Your aunt is ridiculous but screaming and disrupting everyone else isn't "sensible."
    via u/Decent-Historian-207
  • Born-Bid8892 I think that she meant "sensitive"
    via u/Born-Bid8892
  • OP Potential-Law-3421 sorry, i meant sensitive and it was sensitive with food not as my personality!
    via u/Potential-Law-3421
  • bekerryful You are not an AH for having strong emotions, but it's very clear that you are not receiving help gaining the adequate tools for navigating your strong emotions without having a full blown meltdown. You are young and your brain is still developing, so hopefully you can get access to some type of behavioral therapy to help you manage your response to strong emotions/distressing triggers. Life is only going to get more difficult. No better time to start receiving proper help than now.
    via u/bekerryful
  • GoldenFrog 14 "but certainly I didn't care about others if I didn't care about myself" Look, I know you're a kid. But here's some advice I hope you see: This is a TikTok therapy mindset not rooted in reality. People are not forced to accept that you have been shitty to them just because you have mental health issues. It won't fly in a few years. Learning this now might save you a lot of trouble in the future
    via u/GoldenFrog14
  • honeybird29 ESH. Your aunt is a petty bitch but you're too old to be loosing your shit in a restaurant and not have it reflect poorly on you. Hopefully this is the last meal of its kind with your aunt.
    via u/honeybird29
  • Aromatic_Builder7122 Dad shoulda had your back. She started the instigation by touching your food, who tf touches others food at a restaurant the second you get your plate. Plus with the history you too have, it should have absolutely been seen as an instigational attack from her part, you letting you emotions out like that maybe was wrong yes, everyone can always look back and handle moments better, but in the end your parents should have seen through your aunts petty, immaturity, especially si
    via u/Aromatic_Builder7122
  • SufficientCat1527 This should be higher up. OP isn't being a spoiled brat, she's genuinely responding to overwhelming experiences. Her aunt's actions mean she physically can't eat her food now. NTA.
    via u/SufficientCat1527
  • ESH Equivalent Lemon_319 Your aunt sucks but you should know better than to scream and cause a disruption at a restaraunt by now. Self control is how you win against assholes like her
    via u/Equivalent_Lemon_319
  • HellenSweaeets YTA, you're 16 and screaming in a restaurant is embarrassing regardless of the sauce.
    via u/HellenSweaeets

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sensitive teenagers niece restaurant aunt dad family food mom potatoes salad meat
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