It’s funny how fast a kind gesture can turn uncomfortable when someone refuses to take no for an answer.

So what would you do if your girlfriend’s mom kept pushing piles of leftover food at you after trivia night, even after you’d said no multiple times?

Would you just take it to avoid making a scene? Or would you stand firm and put your foot down?

In the following story, one boyfriend finds himself in this predicament and ends up making things awkward.

Here’s what happened.

AITA for refusing to take home leftover food from a trivia night

My (M23) girlfriend (F22) and our parents went to a trivia night together last night.

Her parents brought a lot of food, which was very welcome and appreciated by everyone at the table. There were other drinks and snacks available to all guests, but her parents brought enough for a full meal, which I ate more than my fair share.

It was a good night overall, and our parents get along very well when we all go out.

Her mother kept trying to push the leftovers on them.

Skip to the end of the night, and her parents are deliberating on how much food they have leftover and what to do with it. Her mom offers me a leftover charcuterie platter, which I accept gladly.

However, she continues to offer me other food items that we either do not want or that my girlfriend and I do not have the fridge space for.

I first try to decline politely, but her mom keeps persisting and trying to compromise with us to take it.

It seemed very clear to me that she was trying to avoid taking anything home with her, which I understand, but we simply couldn’t take more than what I had already accepted, or I knew we wouldn’t eat some of the things she offered.

Frustrated, he tried to explain they didn’t have room for more.

She continues to prod and even starts to hand the items to my girlfriend after I said no.

I get visibly frustrated, and I bring up the fact that we have limited fridge space and that we are already taking that food (and some other food items from the silent auction) home with us, so we cannot take any more.

She tries to compromise by taking the food out of the container and placing it in the dishes we already have. She tells us that she brought the extra food with the intention of giving it to us afterwards, which she never told us about before.

He finally got her to back off.

I sternly say, “I said no, please respect that.” Everyone gets quiet and looks at me uncomfortably. My dad comes up to me and says, “It’s a gift, you should accept it politely.”

In my opinion, it felt disrespectful, because it seemed more like she was trying to force me to take food that she didn’t know what to do with after I said we couldn’t take it.

It was also strange, because although I understand the sentiment of giving away food to her daughter and her boyfriend, it was an absurd amount of food to expect us to take with us. I didn’t want to start an argument, so I just took it and had to throw a good amount of it away.

AITA?

Wow! It’s easy to see why he was frustrated, but that was kind of rude.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about his handling of the situation.

This reader thinks the mother was rude.

Yet another person who thinks the mother was wrong.

For this reader, they shouldn’t have been so pushy.

Here’s someone who hates situations like this.

The mother should’ve moved on.

Obviously, there were other people who could’ve taken some of the leftovers.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.