A mum claims a school staff member "shamed" her son for having an "unhealthy" lunchbox after she packed a cake slice for him to take to school.
The parent says she packed a "very well-balanced" lunch, including a sandwich, fruit, yoghurt, and the sweet snack. So she was horrified to learn the support staff member refused to help him open the cake, which he then did not eat.
She also believes the aide should not have "made a decision on what my son can and can't eat."
Sharing what happened in a post to TikTok as @ashy_anne_, the Queensland-based creator explained: "Yesterday, I sent my kid to school with a little individually wrapped slice of cake, and it came back uneaten which is very surprising because he is going through a growth spurt and he's eating everything in sight at the moment.
"When I asked him about it, he said that teacher [aide] on duty at lunchtime wouldn't open it for him because it's not healthy."
Understandably, Ashy was upset by the teacher aide's response. "My son's lunchbox is very balanced. He gets everything from dairy to fruit to sandwiches to cold meats, and lots of selection and lots of variety. We believe in this house that it is our job as adults to provide enough food and variety for our son's nutritional needs to be met and to allow him to listen to his body and make decisions accordingly."
She also disagreed with the staff member's approach. Talking about her son's diet, the mum noted: "He's allowed to have sweet things sometimes. I know some people call them treats or whatever, but we just call it food in this house. We do not attach a moral value to food. We just provide food. It's our job as adults to make sure that we're providing enough of the 'right' foods.
"I'm a little bit annoyed that a teacher who doesn't know me, doesn't know my family, barely knows my child, has made a decision on what my son can and can't eat based on her own diet culture bulls**t."
Ashy added: "As far as I'm concerned, if my son has eaten his ham and his cheese and his fruit and his yoghurt and his sandwich, he can have the f****g cake if he's hungry. It's not there to be decoration. I made the decision to put it in there for him, and now I feel really bad that this teacher shamed him in front of his friends."
Fortunately, she found a solution to help prevent the same thing happening again. "By the way, I sent it with him today and I just didn't leave it in the packet. I unwrapped it so that could scoff it at 9am if he wants to."
However, she was left wondering if she should talk to her son's school. "Should I say something or should I let it slide, and if it happens again bring it up?" Ashy asked viewers.
In response to the video - which racked up over 900,000 views - several commenters urged Ashy to address the issue.
"Say something the first time it happens. It's not their job to police your child's food unless they have a known and serious allergy," read one such reply.
Another person wrote: "I feel like this could be dangerous too. what if that teacher didn't know that child was diabetic and needed that cake to stay regular but you did?"
Meanwhile, other parents revealed they'd faced similar issues. Someone put: "I made my daughter fruit bars things that I freaking made and her school labelled them unhealthy, next day I sent them with the ingredients list." A second added: "Say something. I did!! My five year old took a small piece of his own Birthday Cake and was totally shamed by a Teacher!"
In the days since Ashy shared the first video, the mum has also shared follow-up clips providing more context on the issue, and revealed she's since spoken to her son's school and she's happy with their response.
In one such video, the mum said: "There is a bigger discussion that needs to be had around food neutrality when it comes to talking to our kids, but teachers and educators don't need to be the punching bag of that conversation."
Speaking to the Mirror, she again wished to emphasise it is "not about the staff member". She explained: "The issue I have is with people in positions of authority around children creating negative thought process around food with unhelpful comments."
The parent added: "My son loves school, he adores his teacher and we've had positive experiences with this school (until that one isolated incident) which is why I was unsure about whether or not to even raise it with the school."
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