Man pretends to be on a diet to avoid eating GF's family's unsanitary food. AITA?
When this man feels grossed out by his GF's family's cooking, he asks Reddit:
'AITA for lying to my GF’s parents about being on a diet so I won’t have to eat their cooking?'
My GF’s family are animal lovers and have several big dogs with long coats, a couple of cats, birds, and her younger siblings have rat pets. Their entire house is covered in a thin layer of hair. If you sit anywhere in the house, it’s guaranteed you’ll have animal hair joyriding on your clothes.
It’s so bad that their food will have animal hair in it. These people will pick the animal hair out of their mouths and keep on chewing like it’s the most normal thing in the world. I’ve seen their cats use the litter box then jump on the counter while her mom is cooking.
Sometimes her mom pretends she’s on a cooking show and narrates to the cats while the cats are pawing at the ingredients. Also, when I walk into the house I’m immediately hit with pungent animal odors.
I don’t know if it’s from the litter boxes or the bird and rat cages but I’ve gagged every time I’ve ever entered in their house. Outside of these issues, they are great people.
So her parents had a dinner party and were cooking lots of food because they were expecting about 50 people. I knew from past experiences that I can’t eat there so I told my GF I will meet her there instead of driving together because I had some stuff to do at work.
I stopped at a restaurant after work and before the party. When I got there, her mom tried to make me a plate but I told her that I was on a diet and trying to lose weight.
My GF overhead and glared silently at me. Her mom tried to get me to eat and I kept on saying how great her food smells but I could see hair in it the entire time.
When we got back to our place, my GF tore into me as soon as she walked through the door. She said I was being disrespectful to her family by not eating their food and lying about being on a diet.
That exploded into her asking what else am I lying about. She wants me to admit to her parents what I did and apologize but I don’t think I should as I did lie but it was to save their feelings.
It’s been a week and she’s still mad at me and told me she’ll remain mad until I apologize. She’s angry sleeping on her side with her back to me right now. I never knew there was such a thing as angry sleeping but I swear her snores are more aggressive than usual. AITA?
Let's see what internet users had to say.
ilikeredprivac writes:
NTA! I'm gagging just from reading this. Did you tell your gf you lied because you don't want to eat contaminated food and pick fur out of your mouth/food? Is she really telling you to admit that to her parents? Does she thing that's going to go over well?
Maybe she went straight to yelling and being upset because she knows you're not on a diet without letting you give an explanation. If so, please tell her OP. She may get mad, but she should already have issues eating there herself.
She's clearly fine with it so I'd think twice about what else she accepts as ok. Look out if she wants pets in the future!
platinumpraline writes:
NTA...BUT. You went to the home although it makes you gag. You attempted to find a non hurtful way to avoid eating their food. You have a right to your own beliefs and actions. However, roughly 49 other guests apparently managed to eat the food.
Leaves me wondering if your extra or abnormally finicky and exaggerating. Pet lovers like this either do their best to keep it clean or they dont see it as a problem they can change.
As a pet person, this is ingrained and not changing. Your GF is going to want similar lifestyle/pets in her future. Since it angered her I believe this will be an ongoing source of friction.
Something you'll need to sort out and or move on with someone who doesn't want or need animals in their life. I want to add although I understand your point of view, it was kind of rude...unintentionally.
estesil writes:
Completely NTA. I grew up in a family similar but not as extreme as your GF's, but as I got older I realized how gross it was. Especially when I moved out for college and the smell hit me when I returned.
I was very upfront when my now-husband met my family that it would be best to never go to their house and never eat food they cook. He is very kind and we both find polite excuses to always host them at our place.
It's quite easy for us because my mother hates cleaning (and therefore hosting) anyways.
It's really not clear from your post if you told her the real issue with the food. Unless she suddenly decides her family is disgusting I can't see this ending well for you. At this point, she'd probably take the real reason poorly.