Woman’s Reason for Not Inviting Daughter-in-Law to Dinners Backed

Being a picky eater isn’t easy, it can be restricting, to say the least. One woman’s eating habits have taken their toll on her relationship with food and with her mother-in-law too.

In a viral Reddit post shared by u/MortgageTrick2436, the woman explained she keeps her distance from her son’s wife of two years.

Recently, she hosted a dinner party and invited everyone apart from her daughter-in-law. She explained why in a lengthy post that has racked up 13,200 since it was shared on November 8.

“She is a horrible picky eater, I don’t know why but truly I don’t care because she is a pain at restaurants,” she wrote.

She went on to explain what happens when the family dines out.

“She makes the waiters go through hoops so she will have something she likes and if anything is wrong she will b**** about it or pout in the corner,” she wrote.

Since the daughter-in-law is allergy-free, the woman finds it difficult to comprehend why she avoids a variety of foods.

“What really made me dislike her is that she complained about the food at a funeral, they had a sandwich spread but went on about its gross multiple times,” she wrote.

The mother-in-law cooked a family dinner earlier this week, and after her other daughter-in-law wrote about it online, the other son’s wife phoned the original poster.

“She was p***** I didn’t invite her and asked why, I told her it’s due to her being an embarrassment at dinners and I won’t be inviting her to dinners. She called me a jerk and hung up,” she wrote.

Since then, the son has been demanding an apology but the mother-in-law is hesitant to do so.

It isn’t clear why the woman refuses to eat certain dishes; some Reddit users have suggested she may have an eating disorder.

Newsweek reached out to Kyla Fox, an eating disorder specialist based in Toronto, Canada.

She explained: “‘Picky eating’ is perhaps a less stigmatized, more acceptable, way of naming eating disorder/disordered eating patterns. But picky eating that interrupts people’s lives in various degrees, would fall under the categories of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, orthorexia, and other restrictive eating disorder classifications.

“Moreover, in naming it ‘picky eating,’ it diminishes the complexity behind why someone is engaging in the ways they are and why they cannot/are not able to stop.”

Fox states people can be picky eaters without having an eating disorder but she believes the daughter-in-law is demonstrating a “bigger mental health issue.”

She told Newsweek: “Her ‘pickiness’ is all so consuming for her, it alienates herself and others, causes so much disruption and frustration in the family, and controls her life.

“In a situation like the one described with the DIL, talking together with her (calmly and kindly), and opening up about the impact of the behaviors around food, the worry for her, how it makes others feel, asking about what it feels like for her in those situations, and offering to help/get them help, is a softer, less judgmental way to approach this. Having sensitivity is key (even though this MIL is at her wits end).”

Over 3,000 Reddit users have commented on the post and many are outraged by the funeral incident.

One comment with 18,700 votes said: “NTA. She OPENLY complained about the sandwich spread at a funeral? That’s all you have to point out to her, and to your son, and to anyone else who challenges you on this. She either behaves at mealtime like a decent human being or you, for one, will not be inviting her to dinner.”

“NTA. This isn’t about her being picky. This is about her behavior—she is disrespectful, childish, impossible to please, and makes everyone else suffer because of it. I’ve met elementary school kids with better manners,” said another user.

Newsweek reached out to u/MortgageTrick2436 for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.

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