There's nothing quite like a home-cooked meal. It can warm you from the inside out and turn a bad day around.
But in one woman's case, it's the reason her days sour. She explains that she's in a cooking standoff of sorts with her mother-in-law over who her husband will have dinner with each night.
"My mother-in-law calls every night to ask what we're having for dinner. Then she brags about what she's cooking to make me look bad, especially if we're getting takeout," the original poster revealed.
"I used to care but not anymore. But my husband would ask me to make dinner only for him to go eat the dinner his mom makes at her home. which's 10 minutes away and using the 'that's my favorite meal' excuse."
OP has, in turn, tried stepping up her cooking game.
"Yesterday, I wanted to surprise him by cooking one of his favorite meals and although I was busy, I took time off work to cook," she shared.
"I even went grocery shopping to get what I needed. Later as I was setting the table his mom called."
OP urged her husband not to answer, but he did anyway.
"I told him he didn't have to answer but he did. Like usual … she asked what we were having but acted surprised that I cooked this meal," OP noted.
"She then went on to tell him she cooked X meal and told him to come over."
OP was shocked that her husband agreed to go.
"He said ok which shocked me. I said 'seriously?' as he started dresing up getting ready to leave," OP wrote.
"He told me no offense but this meal (that his mom cooked) was even more of a favorite than the one I cooked. [He] grabed his keys and left."
OP was really crushed by her husband's behavior.
"I felt awful. I took his plate and threw it out then ate my portion," she shared.
"As I was about to put the plate in the dishwasher, he got home looking angry saying his mom lied about cooking that favorite meal, and used it as an excuse to force him to eat dinner with her."
OP wasn't entirely surprised by her mother-in-law, but she was surprised by what her husband said next.
"He sat down telling me to go ahead and reheat dinner," she shared.
"I told him no dinner. After he abandoned it, I threw it out. He said 'what?' and I told him he disrespected my time and effort and chose to go eat with his mom instead."
OP's husband flipped out.
"He began yelling at me asking if I really did that. Then called me petty and horrible then went upstairs saying what I did was 100 times worse than what his mom did," she revealed.
"I definitely feel like I let my anger and frustration get the best of me but it really felt unbearable having to live like this for so long. By the way, I'm 26 and he's 28."
Commenters felt the whole situation was a big red flag.
"Why in world is he telling you to go heat dinner?" one commenter asked. "Did a T-rex attack him and eat his arms on the way back from his mom's? Did he try to catch a piano falling from the sky so it didn't land on a child playing and all his fingers are broke? Did he anger a forest fairy and she cursed him and now he has two sets of legs instead of hands?"
The commenter added: "Or is that him waving a huge red flag????"
People wanted OP to get her husband in check.
"Your husband can either commit to eating at home with you, tell you well before dinner that he's eating with his mom, or he can make his own meals," another poster suggested. "Until he starts regularly making a choice to be home or go with enough time for you to plan and prep your cooking, cook enough for only you – he's on his own."
The commenter edited to add: "I wasn't going to say it because I feel it's obvious, but I can't help myself – this is much larger of an issue than dinnertime. There's a profound lack of respect in your relationship. Husband needs to snip the apron strings at the very least, but really needs to spend some serious time thinking about what a marriage and partnership actually means."
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