Having a family member make a homemade lunch for you to take to work every day sounds very nice and thoughtful.

But you know where this is going, right?

In today’s story, instead of being grateful, one sister-in-law is complaining that the lunches are too fancy.

Let’s see why the lunches are fancy and why that’s causing problems…

AITA for refusing to cook meals with less flourishes for my sister-in-law?

I (F28) make meals everyday for me and my husband (M31) to take to work.

I enjoy adding my own personal flourish to the meals, usually something like putting toppings in the shape of a heart or drawing a cute face on a snack.

It’s a fun hobby of mine, and it brings me joy later in the day to open my lunch and see it nicely arranged.

OP started making lunch for her sister-in-law.

A few years ago, my sister-in-law (F33) had to take a lower-paying job after an accident left her unable to work at her previous one.

I began making her meals like I did for my husband and myself as I knew she was struggling both financially and emotionally.

She lives very close to us, so my husband always just dropped them off on his commute to work.

I always added my extra touch to her meals as well, as I enjoy cooking and figured it would be a nice thing to do.

Her sister-in-law thinks the lunches are too fancy.

However she called me a few months ago and asked if I could stop making her lunches so bourgeois.

I legitimately thought she was joking calling a heart-shaped piece of seaweed bourgeois, but according to her, none of her colleagues at work have such elaborate lunches, and it makes her feel as if she is flaunting her status.

She is not paying me for the lunches and it takes me an extra ten minutes maximum to add a fun touch to them, so I was confused on her train of thought.

I thought that maybe her coworkers were taking her lunch and she didn’t want to tell me, but I agreed to make the lunches less fancy because I wanted her to feel comfortable.

Sometimes her husband accidentally gives his sister the wrong box.

Since I make the exact same meals for all three of us, now I just don’t put effort into the presentation of one of them.

Since my husband drops off the lunch on his way to work, there has been one or two times where he has accidentally given her the wrong box.

I have labelled which lunch is not flourished, but in the rush of the commute there is still the occasional instance of taking the wrong box.

Now her sister-in-law has another request…

My sister-in-law asked me a few days ago if I could just stop making both me and my husband’s lunches “fancy” due to the risk of her being given the wrong one.

I refused, as it makes me happy to see the extra touch of personality in the food and told her that she wouldn’t die from one accidental “fancy” meal, which she was furious at and hung up on me.

She has been refusing to talk to me over the past few days and when I tried to call her to reason she kept hanging up.

She has told my husband that she will only talk to me if I agree to stop making all of our lunches so “bourgeois.”

OP really doesn’t want to stop making the lunches fancy.

I am still making her lunches every day and my husband dropping them off, and while my husband agrees with me that her demand was out of order, he has now said that maybe I should just make all the food less flourished just so that she will not be angry if there is an accidental swap of lunches.

I know it would be easy on me to just not flourish the food, but I don’t want to give up my hobby for a theoretical chance of her receiving the wrong box.

AITA for refusing?

I would be so grateful if someone made my lunch every day and added an extra flourish! The sister-in-law sounds too demanding.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted…

This reader doesn’t think the sister-in-law’s reaction to the lunches makes sense.

This person would’ve stopped making lunch for the sister-in-law.

Another reader can’t understand why OP is still making lunch for her sister-in-law.

This reader offered a solution so the lunch boxes don’t get mixed up.

This reader thinks the sister-in-law should make or buy her own lunch.

Here’s another vote for not making the sister-in-law lunch anymore.

It seems like the easiest solution is to stop making the sister-in-law lunch.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.