Everyone has that one food they just can’t stand. Common ones are tomatoes, broccoli, lima beans, liver, or even onions.

For me it’s olives. No matter what I try, if I even smell an olive in a salad I’ll feel my lunch coming up.

But for this user, their food was peas. When their Mom’s coworkers had made a dinner that heavily featured peas, they didn’t eat them, much to their Mom’s anger!

Were they rude for not eating a food they couldn’t stomach? Decide for yourself!

AITA for picking out the peas from my dinner in front of my mum’s boss?

I’m 20 and I live with my mum [48] in the UK. Mum hosted a mini dinner for some colleagues. Her husband has a big house and a garden where we sat.

I don’t like dinners and eating with strangers but I had to sit with them which was a little bit stupid.

They made food I don’t like. It had peas in it and I don’t like peas.

But even though OP hated peas, they weren’t allowed to make themselves anything different!

My mum knows this but I wasn’t allowed to eat other stuff because it would be making a fuss and there was no time to make other things.

I was not allowed to make something myself either. I picked out the peas from my dinner to feed to ducks at the pond close to my step-dad’s house because I know ducks like peas.

They shouldn’t eat bread because that’s bad for them. I put all the peas in a little cup with my spoon.

OP’s pea removal caught the attention of his Mom’s boss…

Mum’s boss was sitting opposite of me and asked what I was doing so I told him. He was silent for a while and then said OK.

We didn’t talk a lot but sometimes he asked me a question and I answered. At the end he gave me some more peas that he had removed from his own food.

I asked if he also didn’t like peas and he said: ”I do like peas, but I also like ducks, so they can have my peas” which I think was nice of him.

But the boss didn’t just give him his peas, but also some money to get himself something nice!

He also gave me £5 to buy ice cream for myself when I feed the ducks which was also very nice of him. We didn’t talk much but I think he was a nice man and I liked him.

But when he left he talked to my mum and she came to me and she was angry or upset. She asked me if I spend all dinner picking out peas and I said no.

I also ate the pasta bits but there were a lot of peas to pick out. She asked why I did that in front of everyone because that’s very rude to do during a dinner.

According to OP’s Mom, their behavior told their guests that OP didn’t like the food..

It shows you do not like the food and are not interested in the guest. This is exactly what I thought, so that’s true. Mum said that she understands that it’s not nice.

But if she says it’s important (like she did before dinner) then it really is important and I should keep that in mind.

They were people who deserve respect and who feel ‘put off’ by others touching their food strangely or not engaging with them.

But from her boss’ comment, it seems like he was just looking out for OP!

Mum’s boss told her before he left that maybe next time I should eat something else because I didn’t eat much. I’m not a big eater so it’s normal for me but he doesn’t know that of course.

But the point is that he said something negative to her that could have been avoided if I didn’t pick the peas out of my food.

I didn’t think about this. I understand that that is not a good thing but my mum was genuinely upset and I think that is a little bit much

It’s just a dinner and he was a nice man. I don’t think he’s angry at her.

I was just wondering if I’m not seeing something important here that makes it an AH thing to do. AITA?

Absolutely not! OP’s Mom made a dinner featuring a food that she knew OP didn’t like, and OP didn’t eat that food, but also refused to waste it. Seems like a win-win to me!

Reddit said if the boss cared that much about OP’s aversion to peas, he wouldn’t have done the exact same thing with his own peas.

And apparently hatred of peas is so universal its supercedes the rules of common courtesy.

This user thought OP’s Mom was just overwhelmed, but that it wasn’t OP’s fault they didn’t like the peas.

Finally, this person even thought that the boss’ comment was more of a dig to OP’s Mom than to OP.

Mind your peas!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.