Her Parents Cook Dinner for Her and Her Family While She’s Pregnant. She Doesn’t Like Her Dad’s Cooking
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Imagine living in a house right next to your parents’ house. While that might sound like the setup for a sitcom, for the woman who wrote this story, that’s exactly the reality. It sounds like it works out well for her except for one thing. She doesn’t like her dad’s cooking.
While she lives in her own house and has her own family, her parents are trying to help out while she’s pregnant by cooking for her and her family. However, she finds the food really boring and repetitive, but her dad ignores all of her suggestions and her parents seem offended when she tries to ask for something else.
Should she just be grateful for any food at all, or is her annoyance at her parents “help” reasonable?
Let’s read the whole story to decide.
AITA for not wanting to eat my parents’ meals while pregnant even though they’re trying to help save money?
I(28F) am pregnant and my husband (31M) and I live in our own house right next to my parents.
To help us save money, my parents often buy groceries and cook dinners for all four of us, which I appreciate.
The problem is my dad is extremely controlling and picky about food. He only likes a few very basic meals (like plain chicken and rice, pork chops with a ton of butter, canned vegetables, etc).
When he finds something he likes, he will make it multiple times a week, so we eat the same four or five meals on rotation constantly.
She wishes her dad would listen to her.
If I suggest something different (like not having green beans 3 days in a row), he shuts it down with “nah, nah, nah, it’s better this way.”
He also complains or claims food makes him sick if it isn’t done exactly how he wants, unless he doesn’t know what’s in it, then suddenly it’s “the best thing ever.” (He claims chicken “broff” upsets his stomach when i use it to cook pasta, but if i use it without him knowing its the best pasta he has ever had)
I have had strong food aversions with my pregnancy and about five of the six meals he makes now make me gag.
When I turn something down, he says things like “you used to like it” or “you have ate it that way for 30 years”but I never actually liked it, I just ate it because it was what my parents made me as a kid.
Her dad really does seem controlling when it comes to food.
My mom asks me to help plan dinners for the week, but when I suggest things I can tolerate, my dad says it’s too complicated, too expensive, or that he doesn’t know how to get the ingredients.
I even offer to cook it if he buys the ingredients and i write him a specific list. But we go back to his tiny list of meals because its “too complicated”.
We all 4 take turns cooking at our own houses, but no matter who cooks, my dad complains all night about the food if it isn’t like plain unseasoned chicken.
When I was a kid, when we went out to a fast food place and I wanted a chicken sandwich, he would insist we all get burgers because it was “easier” and even chose everyone’s toppings without letting me pick mine differently. He would order 3 identical burgers and id just have to eat it.
Her mom seems offended.
My mom gets defensive when I turn down options they give me, and is like “we’re trying”.
But it’s not like I am asking them to make lobster and steak dinners every night.
For example, we plan on making chicken pie this weekend and I asked dad if we could cook the chicken on the George Forman grill and season it before and he adamantly was like “NO. Chicken pie has BOILED chicken.”
I can see how I would be the AH if I was asking for expensive crazy meals, but i’m not. I am just asking or making suggestions to season or make the foods better.
If I were in OP’s situation, and if I could easily afford to buy my own food, I think I’d claim strong pregnancy aversions and strong pregnancy cravings and insist that I’m going to cook my own food. Her dad sounds way too controlling when it comes to food.
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Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person seems to think they should move.
Another person knows she doesn’t have to eat her parents’ food.
This person has a theory about her dad.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a bride who invites her groom’s “best woman” out to dinner in order to get to the bottom of her true feelings for her future husband.
Here’s another vote for feeding herself.
It’s nice that her parents want to help her out by cooking, but if she doesn’t like the food, she doesn’t have to eat it. Her dad doesn’t get to dictate what she can and cannot eat, but if she keeps eating what he makes, he’ll keep making it. She needs to learn to stand up to her parents.
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