TIFU by letting an 8-year-old convince me to ruin my mom's birthday cake because I'm physically incapable of disagreeing with anyone.

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Yesterday was my mom's birthday.I decided to make her a cake because she loves homemade cakes and I wanted to do something nice for her.

I was making a chocolate cake I'd made a few times before. Everything was going fine until I got to the part where I had to add the cocoa powder.

looked for some in the kitchen cabinet, but I did not find anything except that one ash-tasting powder that I forgot to throw away. It's the worst. It tastes like it was made by burning wood instead of actual cocoa powder so I decided to go buy some

My little brother, who's eight, was sitting on the kitchen counter watching me. He told me that it was okay and that it tasted good, and he was talking with such confidence. And for some reason, I just added it to the mixture not only that but I followed his instructions in other things .and, as expected, after the cake was ready, it was disgusting, and all that work went to shit.

This is not a one-time thing. It has been a pattern in my life.

I have a problem with agreeability in my everyday life.

For some reason, my default mode has been, most of the time, to follow what the other person thinks and believes instead of what I believe, and to agree with the statements they make.

I was born in a house where opinions that differed from the authority figures were not tolerated, among many other things, so I guess that played a big role in it. But today, my brain runs on agreeability autopilot without even the situation having stakes or the person having any authority.

sometimes I fall into the agreeability trap with people with less experience in the specific matter, even little children!!

Once, I was going to check if the food was ready, and it was pretty urgent because it could have burned. But a friend of mine told me that they needed my help with a specific trivial matter that could wait, and instead of checking my food, I went and helped them until they said, "Wait, the food could burn so probably it's best to start with it." That’s when I realized what I had just done.

I agree with one person, and then another person comes along, and I agree with them, contradicting my first statement.

This had caused me a big problem with a friend of mine thinking that I was doing that maliciously.

One day, I was experiencing excruciating pain, and I was sure that it wasn't normal and i should see a doctor. But the moment I told someone and they downplayed it, somehow my whole view of my pain changed, and I kept myself suffering for days before the same person saw my condition and said, “Wait, that's crazy” only then that I believed in my pain again.”

This goes even for my memories where if someone accuse me of doing something enough I will start believing them at least emotionally like even though I intellectually know that I did not do that.

I do have opinions and convictions of my own, and my agreeability is on a spectrum from completely forgetting my own opinions and following the other party, to knowing my opinions but for some reason defaulting to the other person do not fully agree with them but changing my opinion into the middle for absolutely no legitimate reason but that another person said so. Also from conscious agreeability to unconscious agreeability.

It doesn't mean I always agree with everyone but in a lot of cases this is my default state even if it is for a few seconds and then I return to my senses.

TL;DR: I ruined my mom's birthday cake by letting my 8-year-old brother convince me to use awful-tasting coaoa powder and change other ingredients

Just like i keep ruining my life and relationships with my chronic people-pleasing tendencies