Wife asks husband what he’d like for dinner, becomes upset when he actually replies with what he’d like for dinner instead of saying he will cook. ‘She asked for suggestions, so I gave one.’

Author image for Olivia Arocena
Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Jun 5, 2026 1:00 PM EDT

Some questions are better left unanswered.

We, as people, as opposed to robots, in relationships, should aim to consider context when answering a question or even when we're just chatting, but sometimes simple distractions or routine creep up on our daily conversations, and we end up getting on our loved one's nerves. That's exactly the case for the Redditor who shared this story.

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  • Couple cooking a meal
    via Jimmy Dean

    Male and female models cooking a meal and laughing, representing what the characters of this story should start doing.

  • AITA for forwarding my wife an instagram reel of a recipe after she asked what I want for dinner tomorrow?

    My wife asked me what I'd like for dinner tomorrow, and I was thinking about it. I saw this instagram reel of a yummy looking recipe, I forwarded it to her. Said she could try cooking this.
    via Goatcritical9265
  • I literally didn't order her around. I didn't say cook this for me or else. She asked for suggestions so I gave one. That's it.
    via Goatcritical9265
  • She went ballistic at me, saying that only she cooks, that I never cook, that she's not a servant whose job is only to cook and I order her around what to cook.
    via Goatcritical9265
  • her we can go to a I told restaurant instead or we can try cooking it together on the weekend. I literally never ordered her to cook for me or told her.
    via Goatcritical9265

  • Sometimes it feels like individuals who come from the same place are speaking entirely different languages. Some days we ask something hoping we'll get a much broader solution than the one implied in the question itself, or we ask for things expecting an understanding of where we're coming from instead of a literal answer, so when we encounter another human being that limits itself to answering the literal group of words we just mouthed, it is as if all the frustrations are pent up all at once, and we're left there, raging at our own communicational limitations.

  • I guess that's the thing about communication, it can never be reduced to words or even to facial expressions (although some people spend their lives trying to codify the latter);  it can never help but be complexified by the relationship between its participants, by their biology, by the time of the day, and a long list of etceteras.

  • I never cook. I do the dishes every day and other chores but I finish work late and it's easier for me to just either eat out on weekends or some simple packaged food.
    via Goatcritical9265

  • The writer of this story has every right to be confused because he didn't see his wife's reaction coming, and maybe there is a mismatch between the breadth of their understanding when it comes to dialogue, but it still counts to try our best to explain where we are coming from, even after we give the 'wrong' answer. For this, communities like Reddit serve as a civic-minded organization, helping their users to find nuance in their interpretation of mundane life events.

  • it was a simple beef noodle recipe that looked yum. She's done more complex things and similar things before.
    via Goatcritical9265
  • she likes trying new recipes and has even. told me she does even if I did something wrong I didn't deserve to get shouted at
    via Goatcritical9265

  • Personally, I'm not convinced this Redditor really understood the depth of what his unwillingness to cook said about him, or its wider sociological implications, but at least he was coerced by various members of his community into acting well. He did say later that it's crazy how people are still commenting on a story that he and his wife very quickly forgot and made up, and frankly, I agree. What's even crazier is that I had to write this entire piece to find out it was not a great deal. It cracks me up to think about them having a great time watching a movie while I'm going insane about gendered societal expectations. Time to touch some grass.

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marriage relationships family
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