Whether for economic of health reasons, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a significant number of people either move in with their parents or take them into their own homes.
And while this arrangement has likely worked out for at least some of them, others have either learned that their parents seem harder for them to get along with now that they’re grown or they’ve rediscovered what made them move out in the first place.
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But while such stories usually unfold after people find that their parents are trying to control how they live their lives, the tale we’re about to discuss today features the parents apparently having to defend their own lifestyles to their daughter.
For the past three months, a young professional has lived with her dad and stepmom while trying to save up for a house.
In that time, however, the stepmother noted that this person has become “increasingly snappy and unhappy with how her dad and I run our lives.”
Her stepdaughter apparently has a problem with the couple’s dairy consumption, lack of a compost pile, lack of an electric car, and their decision to leave lights on when they leave the house for security reasons.
But the woman’s biggest point of contention with her dad and stepmom involves their cat, Mango.
According to her stepmother, she has threatened to feed Mango a vegan diet because seeing him eat meat makes her sick.
And as the step mom tells it, she’s not kidding. In her words, “She will literally throw up / retch/ leave the kitchen if she sees him eat meat.”
Curiously, she also reacts this way when they leave out dry biscuits for the cat. As a result, the stepdaughter has lost an amount of weight that seems worrying to the parents.
And while the parents acknowledge that the smell of Mango’s cat food in the morning isn’t pleasant, they aren’t going to change Mango’s lifestyle.
While they feel sorry that she’s lost weight and her general appetite, they feel that her best option would be to move out if she really can’t be in the same house as a meat-eating cat.
As the stepmom put it, “She has yelled, cursed at us, cried, begged, etc, but no, we are NOT happy with Mango eating a vegan diet.”
Nonetheless, she feels conflicted because of both the effect this decision is having on the daughter and her mother-in-law’s assurances that the cat can sustain this change in diet.
But although the stepdaughter and her grandmother think the parents are being unfair, Reddit replied that changing Mango’s diet as desired would cause him serious harm.
As one commenter said , “Veterinary nurse here. As explained above, cats are obligate carnivores, they absolutely need the taurine that only meat can provide. Cats cant thrive on a vegan diet.”
Another agreed, saying, “Pets can, and have, died while irresponsible owners force their dietary beliefs on them. Cats aren’t made to be vegan. She is being unreasonable, plus it’s your house – she shouldn’t be making all these demands on you at all.”
But while nobody seemed to think the parents were in the wrong, one user suspected that there might be a different reason why the daughter is reacting the way she is.
In their words, “This is pure speculation without more information, but is it possible your stepdaughter has some mental/emotional issues (an eating disorder, OCD) that are causing her to get sick and lose weight and that she is blaming on the cat?”
As they said, they don’t pretend to know the daughter’s mental health situation, but given that she reacted the same way when the parents fed the cat dry biscuits, something just didn’t add up to them.
h/t: Reddit | headachebrewing
