He’s Sick Of His Brother Being A Picky Eater And Refusing To Eat The Food His Wife Cooks Whenever His Family Visits
This 34-year-old man’s brother, 30, has always been incredibly spoiled by their parents. He got a job when he was 16-years-old, and their parents thought that it made sense for him to give his brother a portion of his paychecks.
His brother often told his parents he didn’t want to do things, and when he said no, they didn’t put their foot down.
Throughout a lot of their childhood, his brother was able to get away with anything and did as he pleased.
At 30, his brother still lives with their parents, doesn’t work, and doesn’t seem to want to do much besides play video games all the time.
While he acknowledged that it doesn’t matter what his brother does with his own life, he’s been irritated by his brother’s eating habits.
“He’s an extremely picky eater. He basically only eats French fries, pizza, and peanut butter sandwiches (and probably a few more things, but not many),” he said.
“He got a subscription to Speedway, where he gets free fries all the time, and basically lives off of that and whatever my mom makes him.”
Occasionally, his brother and their parents come to his family’s house for dinner. They usually have to order a pizza because that’s one of the only foods his brother likes to eat.
However, he, his 3-year-old son, and his wife, 34, are getting tired of always ordering pizza when his family comes over.
Yaroslav Astakhov – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
So, to change it up, his wife started making dinner (she’s a wonderful cook). Unfortunately, his brother is never willing to try any of the food his wife makes.
“The whole visit becomes incredibly awkward because we’ll say, ‘We made lasagna,’ and he’ll say, ‘Oh, I don’t eat lasagna.’ I’ll admit that I don’t have much experience with conflict management, so I end up apologizing or giving up and ordering him a pizza because I feel bad,” he explained.
Even though he doesn’t think this is the best way to go about the situation, he always feels conflicted.
On the one hand, he wants to avoid confrontation because his family doesn’t come over too frequently, so he wants to make the most of their time together.
On the other hand, if he expresses how rude he thinks it is that his brother won’t eat the food his wife prepared, he knows that it would cause tension and drama.
He knows that his parents would take his brother’s side no matter what. Despite his brother’s frustrating qualities, he clarified that his brother is one of the kindest people in the world. Because of this, he doesn’t want to berate him or upset him.
All he hopes to do is express that when his family hosts meals, he wants his family to be shown respect. Plus, he wants his wife’s food to be appreciated.
In his view, his brother needs to learn some manners so that he is a better dinner guest. As he reflects on things, he wonders if he and his wife are rude for not checking with his family before planning out the food they’ll be cooking.
“I don’t think so because it’s not like we’re cooking something crazy spicy or neglecting allergies. It’s literally stuff like lasagna or sweet and sour meatballs,” he shared.
“My mother constantly defends him, saying, ‘Well, you should have made something we all like to eat.’ She’s also a picky eater, although she’s a little more willing to try things.”
Usually, his father comes up with options for meals that they all enjoy, but these foods are all unhealthy and limited since his brother is so picky.
He and his wife feed their son a healthy diet, and if they cooked one of the meals his father suggested, they would have to prepare something else for their son to have.
If they did this, their son would be sad that he wasn’t allowed to have the unhealthy meal everyone else was eating.
He’s debating on just cooking a meal and then telling his brother that since their son eats the same foods they do and they want him to eat healthy, they aren’t going to make or order a different meal for him.
In addition, he would ask his brother to give them some ideas ahead of time before the next get-together.
He clarified that he would never force his brother to eat the meal his wife makes, but he wants to stop giving other meal options so that his brother has something to eat.
It would be wonderful if his brother finally gave new foods a try just in case he did end up liking them, but he wouldn’t pressure his brother into this.
Over time, it’s become annoying to have to either make two meals or eat the same thing every time his family comes over for dinner.
What advice would you give him?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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