Picky-eater sister refuses to choose what she wants at a restaurant before her sister does, even though every time she does this, she ends up hating the food: 'I told her that if she didn't tell me what she wanted, I wouldn't buy her anything.'

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My sister is a picky eater but almost every single time we go out to a cafe as a family, she orders what I order and never finishes it. I enjoy tea lattes and savoury pastries while my sister is a complete sweet tooth. We have different tastes and I have no idea why she always copies my order, takes a bite, and ends up throwing it away. We've wasted so much money over the years because of this. She's almost a teenager now and she's been doing this since she was about 10
A woman eating food at a restaurant. Representation.
years old. My parents always let her do this and I have no idea why. Recently we went to Tim Hortons and I'm usually the one who orders for my family, but this time I went to the bathroom and my dad ordered. I came back and my parents had their drinks and my sister had nothing. I asked what she ordered and my dad said she waited for me to come back so she could order. I knew what was about to happen so I told them I
would order after her. My sister refused and told me to hurry up because she wanted a snack and was getting hungry. We were there for maybe about 10 minutes and the whole time my sister was complaining about how hungry she was and my mom kept telling me to order food for us. I tried to buy her food. I asked her what she wanted and she told me she didn't know, so I told her that if she didn't tell me what she
wanted, I wouldn't buy her anything. I didn't want her to waste money anymore and I even took her up to see the menu but she still didn't know what she wanted. To see if I was right about this whole ordeal, I said I might get a jalapeno pastry and she told me she wanted that too. Then I told her I wasn't really hungry anymore and suddenly she wasn't hungry either. I knew what was going on so I ended up not buying anything.
We left after that and my sister complained until we got home about how hungry she was. My mom got super mad at me for not buying her anything. I really tried to and I even showed her the menu, but she didn't actually want anything for herself. I've always hated that she does this but never stood my ground until now, and suddenly I'm the bad guy. The dumbest part about this is she got a snack when she got home, so it's not like she was deprived of food or anything. My
parents chewed me out for being "unreasonable". I feel like I was justified, but I might be the ah_le?
A salad with egg, tomato, avocado, greens, and seeds.
Shoeshoemagoo I'm confused why our isn't your parent's responsibility to ensure she eats?
ItsMeMissi NTAH. How old are you both and why are YOU tending to her needs rather than her parents? That's...bizarre.
His_GoddessLove Your parents should be handling this. Not you. This isn't healthy behavior and something that should have been corrected a long time ago. You're absolutely NTA. Your parents are AH though. This is not your responsibility. You shouldn't feel like it is. And you should NOT take the lead. Parenting is hard. Continual active parenting is lacking here, they should have circumvented this when it began and continued teaching her
independent decisions a long time ago. They messed up. Now it's going to be a little more difficult and take longer. But again, not your problem to fix.
Longjumping-Wave-756 You're not the ah le. The moment you said you "weren't really hungry anymore" and she instantly wasn't either proves she just wanted to mirror you, not eat. Your parents are enabling the waste and then blaming you. Next time, calmly tell them, "I'll order for myself, you handle her," and step out of it.
Tartpop77 Why do you usually order for your family? This whole family sounds a little ...off
Obvious-Block6979 Just throwing this on the table, I am not suggesting any sort of diagnosis as there is a lot more to it. My son used to do this with my daughter. We were always confused. I remember when he started asking her what he wanted? They were very close but it flummox me. In his mid teens he asked me for a ADHD diagnosis. I had asked his teachers and Drs several times for years and was always told he was not a candidate. When I finally got to the right place they indeed said he had it
pretty bad. He was very difficult to diagnose. Very high IQ and no H component. It turns out any kind of a menu would overwhelm him. Now the fact that your sister chose not to eat is interesting as you did make a recommendation. Maybe just do some digging and ask her why she's doing this. Ask if she'd needs help for some reason. My son was about 10 when this started. Maybe because e were not doing kids meals any more or because we were making fewer recommendations or that his that was changing.
Cracker Bites NTA Excuse me, why are you being parentified here? Why are you coughing up for your sister? Some ages would provide context, you're still living at home but that doesn't give us any indication any more as children can return to living with their parents for many different reasons and why parents are only purchasing for themselves and not their children

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