Man leaves friend's 'healthy' dinner; takes son to McDonalds; wife is pissed. AITA?

Making sure a young kid eats their whole meal can be a project.

Ideally, kids would slurp down whatever is in front of them without a hitch. But that is simply not the reality for many, so it's crucial to find ways to finagle them into getting their basic nutrients. At home, this is easier, since you can have a ready stock of kid-approved favorite snacks ready at the wayside.

But when you're a guest in someone else's home, it can get a bit more complicated.

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a man asked if he was wrong for taking his son to McDonalds in the middle of a dinner with his wife's friends.

He wrote:

AITA for leaving dinner to get my son McDonalds, even though food was served?

A friend of my wife's invited my family - my wife (29F), our son (5M), and I (26M) - over for dinner with him (30M) and his daughter (5F). As long as we've known him, this friend has kept to a very strict diet, which has almost always led to us eating over at his place, but he is an excellent cook so I've never minded. We have not, however, seen him since both of our children were infants.

For dinner, we were served salmon with quinoa and arugula. My son is very mild for a 5-year-old - he throws tantrums very rarely and is the opposite of a picky eater, but I could tell from how he was acting that he was not vibing with this meal. He was picking at his plate, shuffling food, and while he did try the salmon, he didn't seem to like it. I asked him if he was happy with his dinner and he said no, he wasn't.

I basically said, 'Haha, kids, right?' and asked if there was anything else for my son to eat. My wife's friend said that his daughter just eats whatever he makes, so he doesn't keep 'kid food' around the house. My wife said it was fine, our son would be fine.

While he is a mild kid, he definitely gets hangry and this was the beginning of our night, so we anticipated being there for an additional hour or two. I said that our son needed to eat so he'd have energy to play and apologized, saying I'd be gone for just a few minutes, picking something up for our kid. My wife's friend seemed irked, but said he'd try and keep my plate warm.

I was gone for about 30 minutes, came back with a Happy Meal - ordered extra fries in case his daughter wanted any, which she was not allowed to have. By the time I was back, dinner was winding down. My son ate his meal, we had dessert, and he went off to play with his friend. It was definitely a hiccup in the night, but things went fine. We had a good time, but my wife was definitely cold with me.

When we got home (3 hours after dinner), she told me that I was an a$$ at dinner for no reason. I pointed out that if I hadn't gotten our son dinner, he would've been a monster the entire way home, to which she replied that we would've left earlier. I said I was just looking to solve the problem as it happened and that if her friend had been more accommodating, we wouldn't have been in the situation in the first place.

She got offended on his behalf and we decided to just go to bed because we clearly were not getting anywhere. It's been two days since, things are still stilted between us, and I'm not sure where I went wrong. AITA for leaving dinner to get my son food, even though dinner was served?

Redditors did as redditors do, which means they kept it real.

Outrageously_Penguin wrote:

YTA. That was really rude, especially because they had a kid and you brought an obvious ‘treat’ food into the house. If your kid is picky bring granola bars along with you or something, and if you fail to do so just handle it as it comes the way your wife suggested.

If your kid was going to be a ‘monster’ you could have left early and stopped at McDonald’s on the way home. And your kid wasn’t even complaining, and there was dessert coming! You way overreacted.

joeswastedtime wrote:

YTA in the middle of eating, you left? He had some bites and could’ve waited 30mins for you and wife to finish the meal.

runaredlight68 wrote:

YTA. You were at dinner at a friend's house. You left mid-dinner and went and got McDonalds? Not only that, but brought it back for their daughter to eat as well? You cannot be this clueless. I'm completely open-minded, but if you pulled this at my house, you wouldn't be coming back.

sheramom4 wrote:

YTA. No, you don't get up in the middle of dinner and go get Happy Meal. Your kid could have waited until the meal was finished or as your wife said, you could have left earlier and picked up something. Also saying that the friend wasn't 'accommodating' because they don't keep chicken nuggets and fries available for every random five-year-old that shows up is rude. They made dinner.

That was the dinner they made. You did not indicate ahead of time that there would be food restrictions for your child so they didn't make any accommodations for that. Or that your child prefers traditional 'kid' food. It's okay for your kid to not enjoy a meal and to wait for an alternative.

MontanaWildWiman wrote:

YTA...that was extremely rude, and rubbed salt in it bringing fries for a kid you reasonably should know isn't allowed them. In the future, you should just keep a small box of nuts, raisins, jerkey, and/or crackers in your vehicle or purse when going over there.

Clearly, OP messed up big time, and owes his wife's friend a serious apology if they ever want to be invited back.