AITA for throwing my dinner in the sink?

A Reddit user (35F) who lives with her mother (67F) and stepfather (78M) is facing a dilemma regarding her dinner. Due to her disability and multiple food allergies, she bought an expensive gluten-free meal as a special treat. However, when she went to prepare it, she discovered that her stepfather had opened it without permission, taking a small portion.

Despite the user’s explanation that the food was for her specific dietary needs, her stepfather argued that since it was already opened, it should be eaten. In frustration, the user threw the meal in the sink, rendering it inedible. Her family now thinks she overreacted by wasting the food.

‘ AITA for throwing my dinner in the sink?’

AITA for throwing my dinner in the sink? I 35(f) live with my mother 67(f) and her husband 78(m). I am completely disabled and my mother is my primary caregiver. I have been on SSDI/SSI my whole life. I pay rent to my mother every month, i buy my own groceries, i pay all my own bills and have separate internet, i pay half on the electricity and water bill every month. I am permanently wheelchair bound and have several food restrictions.

I have a full size refrigerator in my bedroom because I have so many food allergies and restrictions. (And my mother’s husband has a history of stealing and eating other people’s food). I have celiac disease which makes normal food very expensive, I bought myself beechers gluten-free mac and cheese. It’s almost 20 dollars (where I live) for 1 frozen tv dinner that is certified gluten free.

I don’t normally splurge on food that expensive but it has been a very bad medical year. (I was told I have ovarian cancer from my obgyn in November. I have a hysterectomy in 2021 due to cervical cancer and have been in remission since.) We went to the grocery store today and I put it in my mother’s freezer and forgot about it. This evening I was planning on eating it tonight as new years day dinner.

I couldn’t find it in my freezer and panicked remembering I was so tired in the morning i forgot to put it away. I came out to the kitchen and my mother told me her husband had opened it up and just sniffed it. It was in the freezer, plastic wrap completely removed and a small corner of it was missing. Apparently she didn’t know he did that, he’s done this before on purpose as well when he wants something.

He came into the kitchen and said I might as well let him eat the expensive dinner since it’s already opened. I took it and threw it I the sink running hot water all over it so no one could eat it. They both think I’m the ass hole for wasting a tv dinner that cost almost 20 dollars instead of just letting him eat it since it’s ruined.

I said I paid for it, I bought it for myself as a special treat and yes it’s my fault for leaving it in your freezer because I was exhausted this morning but that doesn’t give him the right to steal it especially since it’s clearly marked gluten free and I’m the only one in this house with that food allergy. But they keep saying it’s a waste of food especially in this economy. So am I the ass hole for throwing my dinner in the sink?

Check out how the community responded:

SavingsRhubarb8746 −  NTA. He’s an adult; he knows better, and if I couldn’t eat a treat because some AH took a bite out of it, I like to think I’d have made sure he didn’t eat it either.

stepstothehouse −  YTA. You have a freezer in your room for a reason. You failed to put your food in there, and instead put it in the free for all refrigerator. I have had this issue with my 18 yo and 7 yo autistic grandchild, though he has no medical issues. I purchased him a refrigerator to keep his purchases separate.

_s1m0n_s3z −  NTA. You were forced to that end by his strategy of opening food he knows isn’t his, and then declaring that he ‘may as well’ eat it now that it has been opened. You’re establishing the point that you’re not fooled and aren’t going to enable his theft. Tell him he owes you 20 dollars.

Friendly_Fall_ −  Take the 20 dollars off the next rent and take a bit out of all his food.

TimeRecognition7932 −  YTA.  You should have asked him for 20 before you destroyed it.

Si13ncer −  YTA you have a full sized refrigerator in your room. So anything in the fridge in the kitchen can only be looked at as fair game. Pointless to be mad about something you did.

losingconsciousness −  INFO- did you just chuck it in the sink and leave or did you clean it up after? Because he’s an a**hole either way but if you just deliberately threw defrosting food in the sink and walked away and left someone else to clean it then I’m going to go for E S H.

arbutus_ −  NTA. He clearly ruined it on purpose so that he could eat it. He sounds very selfish. As you said, he has done this before. He should be replacing it. If your mom defends him, she can pay for the replacement instead.