Imagine dating someone who chews with their mouth open and talks with food in their mouth. Would this bother you, or would you not see it as a problem at all?

In this story, one man is in this exact situation. He really wants his girlfriend to break this bad habit, but she doesn’t seem willing to change.

Let’s read all the details.

AITA for Asking My Girlfriend to Stop Chewing With Her Mouth Open?

I have been put off by something about my girlfriend since I met her (26m with 37f), but it’s not a deal-breaker: chewing with her mouth open and talking with her mouth full.

We have been together over a year, have met each other’s families, have been planning our future, etc.

She’s an amazing woman and we all have our flaws, myself included.

Some flaws she has told me about that I have been improving/fixing are being dry (not too energetic and emotional) often, following schedules too strictly — basically over-planning and having a stick up by butt lol.

Here’s a bit more information about their backgrounds…

We are both U.S. citizens in the USA, we both have international backgrounds (a mix of central European and South American countries) in our family lineage, we both speak another language, and almost everyone in our family holds multiple citizenships and has a multicultural background.

A central European and US background makes for someone very punctual and a South American background does not, so I have planned dates without reservations, planned in an extra 45min-1.5hr when hanging with her family, and done all my work/organization on days her family is not around so I won’t miss any deadlines.

Those are my changes to her feedback.

He was hoping his girlfriend would change one of her bad habits.

One thing I have not really noticed anywhere I have visited, nor with anyone I have met, is an acceptance of chewing with your mouth open and talking with your mouth full. I was raised on it and everyone else I know is the same too.

Over the time I’ve known her, I’ve always insisted on never doing either of those two things.

It has resulted in what I perceive to be normal pauses in conversation and not being gross, and what she perceives to be annoyingly long periods of silence when the conversation should be flowing.

I have been hoping for a year that: she would notice I emphasize not chewing/talking like that and decide to stop, notice how basically everyone around us does what I do and stop, notice how I have also chided children for doing that and told them things like “Alice, I can’t understand you. Remember not to talk with a mouth full of food” and stop, and notice in movies like She’s the Man that it’s well-known to be a bad thing.

He eventually told her what he wanted her to change.

So, a week ago I told her for the first time verbally to please not do it.

She did not stop, ignored me as being extra, told me “leave me alone,” but we agreed it would be something we would raise our future kids to not do.

She possibly called her mother about it (one of the few times she called her mom and wouldn’t tell me why even though I walked in as they finished talking about when her mom said “el es un buen muchacho”).

He let her know that he’s not the only one her bad habit bothers.

After a week, I decided to let her know that my folks awkwardly/quietly mentioned it to me — I was shocked they felt strongly enough to tell me.

After she mentioned she would tell me if her family said something bad about me, I decided I’d do the same and broke my folks’ privacy to let her know what they said.

She is so angry she called them/me rude and left the house. AITA?

Chewing with your mouth open is gross, and so is talking with food in your mouth. She needs to stop this habit.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This is a good point.

Another person thinks he needs to reconsider this relationship.

It really is a gross habit.

He probably didn’t need to mention his family.

Maybe she was embarrassed.

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