It’s important to not sweat the small stuff in close friendships, but some things start to feel impossible to ignore.

When one non-confrontational person was driven to madness by their friend’s poor table manners, they begin to wonder if their sanity is worth hurting their friend’s feelings.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for confronting friends who eat with their mouth open..

I’m extremely anti-confrontational and anti-conflict in general. But there is one thing that pushes me over the edge.

I have a close friend who I see often and enjoy the company of. But when we sit down to eat, they eat with their mouth wide open.

The sounds that this produces are too horrific to even describe.

Even onlookers have been horrified by their table etiquette.

It’s so gross that everyone around them does a double take and looks up from their plate.

I’m a pragmatic person.

I always try and find a way to say something without saying it in an offensive way.

So they try to go about it in a non-direct way, but their friend doesn’t catch on.

So I said, “What are some icks of yours?”

When asked what mine were I said, “People that eat with their mouths open.”

And this friend straight up said, “I so agree!!”

It became clear this friend is pretty oblivious to it.

This revealed to me that the habit is so deeply ingrained that they’re not even self-aware of it.

I’m at a point where I just don’t know what to do. I would never want to hurt their feelings.

So firstly, AITA for thinking this? And WIBTA for confronting this friend?

It sounds like this confrontation has been a long time coming.

What did Reddit have to say?

With delicate matters like this, it’s best to be as gentle as you can.

Looking back, it probably would have been easier to just be direct.

Being able to name the problem may help this person better deal with it.

Their friend may even thank them for saving them from potential embarrassment.

Maybe it’s time to serve up some gentle truth.

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.