A mum has divided opinion online after demanding her stepdaughter stops taking fruit from the fridge "without asking" as it's too expensive.
The anonymous woman sparked controversy on popular forum site Mumsnet as she called the seven-year-old "greedy" for eating all the fruit.
In a post which has since gone viral, she explained how the child consumed two day's worth of berries, peaches, melons, tangerines, and bananas in one sitting.
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The mum, who is the primary breadwinner in the family, claims the young girl's insatiable appetite is causing budget concerns and digestive issues.
She explained: "My stepdaughter, seven, moved in with us full-time back in January. Our situation is that I am a higher earner and breadwinner on mat leave with my five-month-old baby."
The woman went on: "My husband does some part-time work that doesn't bring in much (he runs our family vehicle and contributes towards household costs such as shopping etc). My stepdaughter's mother does not contribute towards her expenses while she is living here (indefinitely for now).
"At the moment, we are on a tight budget due to my mat leave - and one thing driving me crazy is my stepdaughter eating all our fruit. We will buy a weekly shop with two bunches of bananas, few punnets of berries, peaches, melon, grapes, tangerines, etc, and she will eat her way through the lot in two days.
"For example, yesterday she ate a punnet and a half of raspberries, three peaches, four tangerines, some grapes, a slice of melon, and two bananas. This is on a school day (so she eats this at breakfast and in the evening).
"She is then obviously reluctant to finish a proper evening meal or try anything she dislikes. She also has had a couple of accidents with loose stools (in my opinion this is from bingeing on fruit). She takes it from the fridge without asking and leaves nothing for my husband and I.
"I've spoken to my husband about this and he says she is a growing child and at least fruit is good for her - fair enough I buy fruit partly for her to eat, but the amount seems greedy to me, and beyond what is necessary for a healthy child. I think reasonable is a small bowl of berries and grapes along with a tangerine and banana after school as a snack and then one piece for dessert.
"She can also have melon and banana for breakfast along with cereal and yoghurt. I want her to learn that food costs money, we don't have a bottomless pit of it and you don't just gorge on whatever you want because you are bored/tired/didn't eat your dinner, you ration portions in a family so everyone gets a fair share, and sometimes eat less tasty things to maintain a healthy diet."
The woman admitted that when the young girl first moved in she was "gorging on sweets", Mirror UK reports.
The habit was relatively quick to solve as her husband could understand the unhealthiness of it all - but now he's lacking to intervene in his daughter's new healthy habits, despite his wife's complaints.
The woman said: "We provide substantial breakfast, lunch, and dinner portions, and I try to accommodate her tastes (though she can't just have fish fingers and strawberries as a diet, which would be her preference)."
Seeking advice, she questioned: "Want to handle this in a compassionate way, would I be unreasonable to stop buying fruit until my husband agrees to a sensible ration for my stepdaughter?"
Since sharing her thread, the woman's post has raked in over 350 - where Mumsnet users fled to the comment section to discuss the controversial ordeal.
One person wrote: "This makes me feel quite sad. It sounds like she's having some issues, bless her. And it also makes me sad that you resent her for it."
On the other hand, someone else said: "Not unreasonable at all. That's a ridiculous amount of fruit to be eating in one day, and as you say, never mind the cost, she is going to end up making herself ill."
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