'Maybe I was a bit too harsh': Wife makes inedible home cooked meal for husband's birthday, husband calls her out, regrets his decision

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  • 01
    Food - "One dish looked half burnt and [the] other was more like tasteless water instead of what she was calling a soup."
  • 02
    Font - AITA for telling my wife she should've saved herself the trouble of cooking me a birthday dinner, considering her cooking skills? *cooking My(28m) wife (24) has terrible cooking skills so she rarely even attempts to cook. We have a housemaid who cooks except for sundays so we rely on takeouts every sunday.
  • 03
    Font - My birthday was on last Sunday, I don't really celebrate it so we planned that I'll have lunch with my friends and dinner with my wife. I asked her if we can go eat at some nice place and she declined saying she will arrange the dinner. I thought she was going to order something. By the time I reached home in the evening, whole house smelled weird. She said she has cooked me a dinner.
  • 04
    Font - I was stunned because that was least expected but decided to go along with that and waited until she set the table up. I won' go into details but one dish looked half burnt and other was more like tasteless water instead of what she was calling a soup. The dessert was barely edible. She knew she messed up but expected me to try them all.
  • 05
    Font - I thanked her and told her we can still order or go out and she should not have bothered cooking because she knows of her poor cooking skills very well. She got upset and told me at least I could've tried it before she cleaned the table and told me I can order for myself. She had her own cooked meal and did not touched what I ordered. Now I look back and think maybe I was a bit too harsh, does this make me an AH?
  • 06
    Font - TransportationIcy896. 1 day ago • edited 2 hr. ago Soft YTA. Let me clear it's about your phrasing and breakdown of communication. You saying " she should not have bothered cooking because she knows of her poor cooking skills very well" is so tactless. Even if it didn't turn out well, this way of delivering the comment just completely shuts down her efforts.
  • 07
    Font - I understand it was your birthday as there are, as you pointed out OP, other ways to better celebrate the occasion. It was also unrealistic of your wife to expect you to try all the dishes and expect you would eat it. However, there are other ways to navigate the situation without being crass or bringing up your wife's cooking skills. 7.7k Reply Share
  • 08
    Font - Angelo Pappas - 1 day ago Commander in Cheeks [21... YTA - It's fine to not like her cooking, but you didn't have to insult her and belittle the effort she put in. She clearly wanted to do something nice for you. Also, how is she supposed to learn how to cook if you all you do is mock her efforts? 2.4k Reply Share
  • 09
    Font - Sorry_I_Guess - 1 day ago I'm going to go against the grain here and say ESH. I mean, clearly you're a massive AH. Your wife wanted to do something special for you and put in a huge effort to cook you a meal from scratch instead of just ordering from a restaurant. She likely spent hours choosing recipes she thought you'd like, grocery shopping, doing food prep, and cooking, not to mention setting the table, etc. And she did it all because she loves you so much and she wanted to show you i
  • 10
    Font - And while you didn't have to like food that turned out terribly, there was literally no good reason in the whole world why you had to be extraordinarily rude, belittling, and repeatedly denigrate her. Like... why? Why would it even occur to you that the best response to someone going to all that trouble to do something nice for you is to humiliate and insult them? You could have been appreciative and told her how much her effort meant to you, but that despite that, clearly it didn't work
  • 11
    Font - HOWEVER... Where I'm going to part ways with all the other commenters is that I think she's an AH too. Not for cooking you dinner - that was really sweet of her - but because she has eyes and tastebuds, and was clearly aware that somewhere along the way it went seriously wrong.
  • 12
    Font - She knew that the food didn't turn out correctly and was barely edible, and yet she became weird and stubborn and tried to force you to taste it all anyway. Again... WHY? She can want her hard work acknowledged with words, but it's weird and unfair to actually want to PUNISH you by forcing you to "taste" food that she already knows is going to taste terrible. It was your birthday, and the whole point of the meal was that it was supposed to be a gift and a treat for you. Her weird power pl
  • 13
    Font - ESH here. You were rude, she was controlling, and honestly, it sounds like you deserve each other. 1.9k Reply Share
  • 14
    Font - mylovaa 1 day ago Nta. I'm on your side op. She knows she's a terrible cook and knows that the food turned out bad. Not sure why she thought your birthday was the time to experiment 432 Reply Share
  • 15
    Font - Bruiscear 1 day ago Certified Proctologist [26] NTA. Don't understand all the YTAS. Why is she practising ON your birthday? If she wanted to give you a nice birthday meal, why didn't she practice in the weeks coming up to your birthday. Nobody plays at the superbowl final their first day out playing football.
  • 16
    Font - She made YOUR birthday all about HER. Your birthday is supposed to be about celebrating you and what you want. Instead, she wanted an ego- stroking by making a mess in the kitchen and expending you to drop to your knees in gratitude. If she cared about you or what you wanted - she'd have gone to a restaurant like you suggested, or learnt how to PROPERLY cook something you like and actually want. If the genders were reversed, you'd be getting lots of NTAs. 277 Reply Share
  • 17
    Font - Intrepid-Camel-9797. 1 day ago YTA. I hate cooking and baking, but a couple of years back, I made my husband a birthday cake. It was an utter disaster. He told me it was great, and he appreciated the effort (my kids weren't so kind and told me it tasted like wet cat, which it kind of did) It's all about the effort. She tried because she cares, you shat all over that effort. 251 Reply Share

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