AITA for tricking my husband into eating the food I cooked by making him think his mom sent it?

A Reddit user shares a story about her frustration with her husband, who refuses to eat her cooking and insists on eating meals his mom sends him daily. Despite being a good cook, she felt rejected by his constant preference for his mom’s food.

After several failed attempts to get him to try her meals, she decided to trick him by cooking a dish similar to what his mom would send and claiming it was from her.

When he praised it, she revealed the truth, leading to an upset reaction from her husband. Now, she’s questioning if her actions were justified. Read the full story below…

‘ AITA for tricking my husband into eating the food I cooked by making him think his mom sent it?’

My husband “Mickey” loves his mom’s cooking. He always praises her for the food she makes and even mentioned it in his groom speech at the wedding! I consider myself a good cook. In fact, I’m going to just say that I’m even better than his mom.

But the problem is he doesn’t even want to try my cooking or give me a chance to prove it, I thought this would change after marriage but 5 months later nothing’s changed. What does he eat if he’s not eating what I’m cooking?

He has requested that his mom send him a meal everyday to eat for dinner after getting off work except for the weekend where we go over to her house and eats breakfast, lunch, dinner and DESSERT there.

Every single day he’d come home and ask if his mom sent him a meal. I grew irritated of this and whenever I try to offer him to taste any of the (wasted) food I cook, he’d lay in bed and say he’s full.

So I came up with an idea. I cooked him the same meal his mom sent him that day and put it aside til he got home. He asked if his mom sent a meal for dinner and I said yes and served him my own version of the meal – not hers.

He didn’t notice anything different. he ate the whole thing with no hasitation while I sat across from him asking him questions about how good the meal was. He went on and on praising it saying how perfect, exceptional it was, and how it was just what he needed after a long day at work. I smiled and said “You’re welcome”. He froze and looked at me for a minute.

Looked down at the plate then back at me and said “wait, you made this didn’t you?” I said “With my own hand and from scratch”. His face suddenly went red and he got upset and said that this was not cool.

I told him he never even gave me a chance to show him how good my cooking is and that he’s probably just used to his mom’s cooking and is rejecting any other alternatives which’s unfair to me.

He said that I shouldn’t have lied to him and basically tricked him into eating food that he had no idea where it came from. I said he liked it and admitted that it was good so what’s the issue. He got up from his seat, threw the napkin and said that I was unbelievable then walked out.

He got quiet the rest if the evening then posted about it on his FB in a vague post about being tricked into eating “someone’s” food like that. I felt guilty and bad thinking maybe I really shouldn’t have done this but I was frusrtated with how he kept turning down every meal I tried to cook him and then say “No thanks, I prefer mom’s food”.. AITA?

Here’s the comments of Reddit users:

Swegh_ − why would you marry someone who refuses to eat your food and makes his mother make him dinner everyday?

BlueberryBlossom13 −  Why the f**k did you even marry him? File for divorce and ship him back to his mommy. NTA

nothereforit_ −  Info: How did you end up marrying him?

Blonde2468 −  NTA. First of all STOP GOING TO HIS MOTHERS EVERY WEEKEND TO EAT!!! He can if he wants to but you don’t need too!! Come on girl, have some respect for your self!!

Let his mother freaking cook for him and be free of that chore. What you don’t see is that he is manipulating you – he is letting you know every single day that you are not good enough for him. He prefers his mother over you. He is doing this to destroy your self esteem and he does it on purpose.

[Reddit User] −  NTA but a women in desperate need of a divorce. This man does not love you. He loves his mother.. Is this the life you want?

Spuckleford −  Usually I give a hard pass to food deception but you were driven to extremes. NTA. You know, in a lot of relationships, wives would love not having to cook for their husbands, but you, ma’am, are living in a creative new version of domestic hell. Anyway, polite but appreciative clap.

nontradionbridezilla −  Might I make some suggestions? 1. Stop receiving the meals MIL sends. However they get sent to your house, you don’t receive them, and have no involvement in how they get stored. 

They can be left at the door for all you care. 2. When he asks you did his meal get sent, you respond with you have no idea, (optionally you can add that you also don’t care).

Let him hunt it up and choose whether or not he want to consume it, or have to go out of his way to collect it from the ILs because there’s no guarantee it will get stored safely enough to be safe to eat by the time he gets to it.

3. Start cooking for yourself, go as fancy as you can as many times as you can and eat them in front of him while he consumes his plate of sad.

4. Point 3 may not be doable but this one is. Stop going to the ILs on the weekends. Stay at home, cook up a storm for yourself and some chosen friends (with or without their assistance, at your discretion) and post pictures of both your time and your spread on SM. 5. Do NOT let up on this until he grovels. Not apologises, GROVELS.. Edit: NTA

ComicPlatypus −  INFO: seriously, why did you marry him? This had to have been a known issue.

Any_Cantaloupe_613 −  ESH. Your husband, for obvious reasons. You, for marrying him knowing this was an issue and thinking he would change. And his mother, for continuing to enable this behavior.

FlyFlapOwner −  NTA. And could you still annul the marriage. No offense but you are married to him and his mom.

Do you think the Redditor’s actions were justified, given her frustration with her husband’s repeated rejection of her cooking, or was it wrong to deceive him into trying her meal?

How would you handle a situation where a partner refuses to appreciate your efforts? Share your thoughts below!