Teen Secretly Enters Cooking Contest and Places Second, but When Mom Finds Out, She 'Explodes'

"She’s always said things like 'Cooking is just a life skill, not a career,' and I didn’t want to deal with the lectures," the teen writes of her mom

A 17-year-old girl says that her neurosurgeon mom is disappointed after she secretly entered a baking competition and came in second place.

In a post shared to Reddit, the anonymous teen writes that she has "always been seen as the 'disappointment' in my family."

"My mom is a neurosurgeon, and she’s constantly comparing me to my cousins, who are all excelling academically. I’ve never been great at school—my grades are average, and I struggle with math and science—so I’ve always felt like I can’t measure up to her expectations," she continues.

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What her family doesn't know, she adds, is that she's secretly been nurturing a passion: cooking.

"It started as a way to deal with stress, but I grew to love experimenting with recipes and trying new techniques," the teen writes. "I’ve been working part-time at a café, and the chef there let me help out in the kitchen during quiet shifts, teaching me a lot. A few weeks ago, he suggested I enter a small local cooking contest. I didn’t expect much, but I ended up winning second place."

She didn't tell her mom, she writes, because she feared her mom "wouldn’t take it seriously."

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"She’s always said things like 'Cooking is just a life skill, not a career,' and I didn’t want to deal with the lectures. I figured I’d tell her eventually, but I wasn’t in a rush," she writes.

But during a recent parent-teacher conference, the teen's home economics teacher mentioned her second-place finish in the competition.

"She thought my mom already knew, so she mentioned how impressive it was that I’d placed in the contest. My mom didn’t say much at the time, but the moment we got in the car, she exploded," she writes.

She continues: "She said I was wasting my time on 'hobbies' when I should have been focused on school and accused me of deliberately keeping it from her to embarrass her. She also said I’d made her look bad in front of my teacher for 'acting like this was an achievement.' "

Now, the teen writes that her entire family is upset.

"My aunts and uncles are saying I should’ve told my mom so she could 'prepare' and that I shouldn’t have entered the contest in the first place," she writes. "My dad, who usually stays out of things, said I owe my mom an apology for stressing her out and suggested I quit the café to focus on my grades."

The teen finishes her Reddit post by asking commenters if she was "selfish" for hiding her participation in the cooking competition.

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By and large, Reddit users don't think so.

One commenter suggests that the girl's mom "seems more concerned with how your achievements make her look than with actually supporting you."

"If anything, your teacher did you a favor by highlighting something you should absolutely celebrate," they add. "Don’t let your family guilt you into giving up something that brings you joy and makes you proud of yourself."

Adds another: "Placing second in a cooking competition is an achievement you should be extremely proud of. Your family's lack of support is shameful ... Please don't let them ruin something you enjoy doing."