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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/Merrymary1013 on 2023-10-02 20:11:46.

Last February I (31F) was 8 months pregnant I also had gestational diabetes and I was concerned about fetal macrosomia. One day I am sitting at my computer and a coworker from a different part of the building was bringing her daughter (7ishF) around attempting to sale Girl Scout cookies to people in the building.

I will pause my story here to note our company has a policy against this, but numerous people do it anyways. Most of the people on my floor travel and are rarely in the office. However, my supervisors did not want me going into labor out of town so I was on desk duty. All the cubicles surrounding me were empty. I want to point out that I also would normally buy at least a box because I appreciate hard work but I didn’t want the temptation around being newly diabetic and trying to watch my sugars.

This little girl and her mother, go up and down row upon row of empty cubicles until they finally stumble upon me. Mom looks relieved and asked how many boxes would I like to buy? To which I politely and pleasantly respond politely: “no thank you none for me today” and attempt to turn back to typing because I thought that would be the end of it, but instead the mom replied with come on you’re pregnant you at least want one box. Which I once again politely but a bit more firmly say: I will pass this time, please check with me again next year.

Then the mom responds with come on just buy one box. At this point I’m starting to get flustered because how many times can I say no to a sweet little girl and not feel like a jerk. So I look at mom and tell her I. said. no. But she still won’t leave me alone and ask why not? Why can’t you just buy a box? I didn’t want to get into my medical information with mom or a seven-year-old nor did I feel it was any of their business, so I bluntly and firmly said (but I didn’t yell) I don’t have to justify myself to you. I don’t want cookies. Now leave me alone. I then turn back to my typing and refused to acknowledge their presence anymore.

Mom said wow and storms off with her daughter. She proceeded to tell other coworkers what happened and she got in trouble for bringing her daughter up to sell cookies. A third of my office thinks I’m a jerk for not buying cookies, a third thinks I’m a jerk for getting her in trouble, and a third think she’s in the wrong).

Edit to add: from what I gather mom’s perspective is in the past (like most of my colleagues) I have always bought a box, or popcorn, cookie dough, discount card, etc from any child that stops by. She felt like her daughter was singled out for some reason.

Edit 2: I didn’t think of donation as an option. If I’m ever in a similar situation again, or if I could go back in time, I would’ve donated some money to her and told her to keep the box.