Pregnant Woman Who Threw Sister's Dinner Out of the Window Slammed

They may start as childish arguments, but sibling rivalries can last long into adulthood—at least if Reddit's 'Am I the A******?' (AITA) forum is anything to go by. From boyfriend-stealing sisters to arguments over inheritance, the popular subreddit has seen its fair share of relationship dilemmas.

In a post shared to the forum on October 11, user u/Local_Lab_2499 asked for advice on her own sibling spat. The 18-year-old explained that her older sister "Lily" is six months pregnant with her first child, and has recently moved back home after breaking up with her boyfriend.

However, her sister's "selfish and entitled" behavior led to a recent kitchen confrontation after she stole the poster's dinner. When she complained, Lily responded by ruining her replacement meal, leaving her with no food.

The poster's parents took Lily's side, blaming pregnancy hormones, but Local_Lab_2499 refuses to apologize. Since being shared, the post has received almost 7,000 upvotes and over 1,000 comments from Redditors supporting the teen and slamming Lily for her actions.

What causes sibling rivalry?

A 2016 study found that jealousy, prejudices and parental favoritism are three key causes of sibling rivalry.

Conducted by Malaysia's Digital Government and Capacity Building for Social Inclusion project, researchers discovered that family size and culture also play a part in sibling rivalry. Larger families with multiple children were more likely to have issues, while conservative families were more likely to hide sibling rifts to protect their reputation.

Saba Lurie—a licensed marriage and family therapist and the owner and founder of Take Root Therapy—said Local_Lab_2499's parent's may be taking Lily's side due to her current situation, but they are still invalidating their younger daughter's feelings.

"Given her pregnancy and recent break-up, they may have more compassion for her at the moment," she told Newsweek.

"[However], understanding her parents' current perspective probably doesn't make navigating the problem any easier for the younger sister, who may be hurt by her older sister and invalidated and misunderstood by her parents."

In situations such as this, Lurie recommends taking the time to "cool down" before engaging with one another again to prevent further escalation.

"When we feel attacked, it's not unusual to attack in response, which will certainly not lead to problem resolution," she said.

"Taking some space to self-regulate, to reflect on what we are feeling, and to consider what we would have wanted to do or say differently, can make it easier to approach the conflict with more intention."

'Like a demon'

In her post, Local_Lab_2499 said she made herself dinner after a long day at college. After dishing her food out, she went to the bathroom and quickly let the family dog outside before returning to the kitchen. When she got there, she found her 24-year-old sister had eaten her meal.

"I told Lily that was my dinner and she just stared at me in silence," she wrote.

"I went to go make some cup noodles and told Lily this was annoying. Lily said she was hungry and said she's eating for two, and told me to shut my mouth.

"I started yelling at Lily and told her she should be apologising after eating my dinner, and that maybe she should learn how to cook for herself if she's so damn hungry."

Lily responded by yelling at the teen "like a demon" and threw her cup of noodles out of the window, leaving the poster "dinnerless and cup noodleless." She then stormed out of the room.

After Local_Lab_2499 told her mother and stepfather what happened, they said she "escalated the situation by yelling at Lily" and told her to apologize. Nevertheless, the poster refuses to say sorry, believing pregnancy hormones are not responsible for Lily being a "jerk."

Redditors backed the poster, with acegirl1985 calling the sister "spoiled and entitled."

"I'm honestly shocked," wrote hootie-owl.

"You're 100 percent owed an apology," said Maleficent-Fennel-13.

"Pregnancy does not give you the right to be a raving A******!" agreed Addamsgirl71.

While anappleaday wanted to know: "Who the f*** walks into a kitchen, sees a plate of food they clearly didn't prepare and weren't told 'it's dinner time come get your food' and eats it??"

Some users were concerned about the older sister's parenting ability, with green_locket commenting: "This behavior doesn't look good for her impending motherhood."

"She might be 'eating for two,' but that also means she is going to be responsible for two people's lives," said letstrythisagain30.

"It's amazing she has her family's support, but she needs to be able to handle her hormonal outbursts, or at least take responsibility and sincerely apologize after they calm down."

Newsweek has reached out to Local_Lab_2499 for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.