Being polite at the dinner table shouldn’t mean being pressured to clean your plate, especially when you’ve already said no six times.

What would you do if your in-law kept pushing food on you long after you were full, ignoring every polite refusal and making you feel like a child being scolded? Would you just chalk it up to that’s how he is? Or would you decide it’s just not worth the stress?

In the following story, one woman finds herself dealing with a similar situation at a family dinner. Here’s what happened.

AITHA if I refuse to go out to eat with my in-laws again

I (32 F) and my husband (35M) have been together for 13 years. In this time, we haven’t been out to eat much with just us and his parents, mainly because it’s been a whole family thing (including siblings, aunts, cousins, etc.). And when we have, it’s been to buffet restaurants, so I’ve never experienced this exact situation before.

We went out to eat tonight – just us two, mother and father-in-law, and me and my husband’s son (toddler, I’ll keep his age out for privacy?! And it’s irrelevant).

We ordered a lot of food to share rather than individual meals, and each loaded up our plates multiple times.

Her father-in-law kept pushing her to eat the food.

We’d pretty much finished the food, apart from about one serving of one of the dishes, and my father-in-law tells (not asks) me SEVEN times to finish it.

I politely declined 6 times – no thank you, oh I’ve had enough thank you, really I couldn’t eat anymore if I tried, but thank you- until the 7th time, I was so mad at being told to eat more that I just said “No, I’m not eating anymore food.”

To which he responded, “I don’t like wasting food”, and then ate it himself.

Bearing in mind the food was most definitely cold at this point, so even if I had wanted it, it wouldn’t have been enjoyable.

She wants to talk to her husband about it, but is unsure if she’s overreacting.

I totally get not wanting to waste food, but he could have asked for it to go or just eaten it himself in the first place, instead of trying to basically bully me into it. He didn’t try to push the food on my husband or my mother-in-law either, just me.

I haven’t spoken to my husband about this yet, but I could tell even he was getting annoyed and started saying no for me.

I feel like I may be slightly overreacting, but coming from a family that never forced me to eat more than I was comfortable with, this behaviour is outrageous to me.

Moving forward, she never wants to be in that situation again.

I learnt early on that my husband’s family is expected to clear their plates, so whenever we eat at their home, I always plate my own food up so there isn’t too much.

Once I did put slightly too much on (there were maybe two bites left, but I simply could not stomach it), I started scraping it into the bin, and my father-in-law shouted from the next room, “WHO IS WASTING FOOD?”

I don’t want to be in that position at a restaurant again, and therefore, I don’t want to go out to eat with them in that sort of setup again.

AITA?

Yikes! That must’ve been pretty awkward for her.

Let’s see what the people over at Reddit have to say about situations like this.

Here’s an excellent point.

According to this comment, the father-in-law needs to realize not everyone thinks like him.

Let’s hope not.

As this person explains, that’s literally the reason for take-home boxes.

She needs to accept who he is.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.