Sharing food can foster one's sense of connection and belonging, yet it has to be voluntary. And while often most of the food in families is for common use, it doesn’t mean it all automatically is, in addition to there being various intricacies about do’s and don’ts here as well.
At least such was this Redditor’s issue when she ordered her son’s favorite noodles from Japan for him, and yet her husband refused to at least discuss the issue, prior to enforcing his idea of it being everyone’s for the taking by simply eating it.
More info: Reddit
A stepdad ate his 13-year-old's noodles to have it his way, disappointing the mother
Image credits: makafood (not the actual photo)
The boy missed the food he ate while living with his father in Japan, so his mom got her son's favorite noodles shipped out to him
Image credit: u/Aggressive_Court_881
Image credits: Jenkin Shen (not the actual photo)
Image credit: u/Aggressive_Court_881
The boy's 9-year-old sister asked him if she could have some and he refused due to her wasting the entire thing last time
Image credits: skyseeker (not the actual photo)
Before the girl could even respond, the dad piped up with "give her some", yet walked off as soon as mom backed her son up
A woman brought a disagreement with her husband about whether their 13-year-old son was obligated to share his food with others to the Reddit AITA community online, asking if she was a jerk to go off on her husband for eventually eating the noodles.
The 13-year-old boy had lived in Japan with his father for a year, and after returning home to where his mom lives, he was missing Japanese dishes.
For this reason, the boy’s mother got some of the ingredients and recipes shipped out to him, including the boy's favorite noodles with a dark brown spicy sauce.
The argument started as the woman’s 9-year-old daughter asked her brother if she could have some and the boy told her ‘no’. This was due to the girl wasting the whole meal because she found it too spicy last time.
Yet, before the girl could even reply, the woman’s husband piped up asking the boy to just give her some. At this point the mother backed her son up, saying he wasn’t obligated to share, which led to the man just walking off.
However, this wasn’t the end, as the next morning all the boy’s noodles were gone, and the man explained he ate all four packages because “he wanted to”. The mom was livid that her husband didn’t respect her son’s right to not share his food even after she confirmed it.
This resulted in the woman going off on her husband, while he called her ridiculous and a jerk for doing so.
The next morning the boy found all the noodles gone and the man explained he ate them, because he wanted to
Image credits: Kampus Production (not the actual photo)
The mom was outraged and went off on her husband, saying he should be ashamed of simply eating the boy's food
When it comes to conflicts in personal relationships, Andrea Bonior for Psychology Today listed healthy conflict resolution among the important factors for a healthy relationship. She explained that hiding one's upset with others rather than expressing emotions and working to resolve the issue even when it causes conflict often is a better way to go.
However, this means refraining from either stonewalling or escalating into personal attacks when there is a problem or a difference of opinion and talking it through with respect, empathy, and understanding.
Similarly, Gwendolyn Seidman noted that often being direct, coming out and plainly stating what is bothering a person is a better approach than choosing other ways of expressing one's displeasure in personal relationships.
Finally, it might be a good idea to avoid getting overwhelmed with negativity and indulging in the urge to respond to one's partner’s unwanted behavior with even more bad behavior, in addition to making an attempt to understand where one’s partner is coming from.
Coming back to the original story, the woman’s post gathered 9.7k upvotes on Reddit and people judged the woman was not a jerk in this situation, calling the man's behavior of eating four packages of noodles in one sitting to dominate the 13-year-old boy and his mother "extremely immature" to say the least.
Redditors shared their takes on the situation
