- by foxnews
- 18 Aug 2025
A woman sparked a heated debate online after asking if it would be wrong to skip a monthly dinner with her husband's family because she "can't stand" her mother-in-law's cooking.
The woman, who said she is 23, said she has a rocky relationship with her mother-in-law, who has been "sort of passive aggressive" toward her for years.
She noted that when she expressed her dislike for Chinese cuisine in the past, her mother-in-law made snide remarks about her to the other family members.
"It seems that I can never get on her good side, so I have a gut feeling that it'd just be better to not go altogether so I can avoid altercations," the daughter-in-law said.
Her husband, she added, told her she can do "whatever makes [her] most comfortable."
So she turned to Reddit to ask if she would be wrong for skipping the dinner.
Many Redditors came down firmly on the side of YTA ["you're the a--hole"].
"Oh, come on," one person exclaimed in a comment on the thread.
"You do not have to tell her to cook something else or blatantly tell her you dislike her food or not show up at all."
Others had a beef with the woman's claim that she couldn't tolerate any Chinese food at all, and some even accused her of being xenophobic.
"You could always just eat some stir-fry vegetables with rice," one person said. "Sounds to me like you just don't like your MIL."
Others emphasized that the dinner could be a chance to salvage their fraught relationship.
Several argued that refusing to attend was only stirring the pot, and slammed the woman for being immature and entitled.
Other people, however, took the side of the original poster.
"I don't think you're wrong for not wanting to be around someone who treats you poorly," one person said.
The woman is not in the wrong if "your husband is OK with it," said someone else. "One night a month when he enjoys family and you do something you like is fine."
Jackie Pilossoph, a former dating and advice columnist and founder of Divorced Girl Smiling in Chicago, said the woman should feel free to skip the dinner occasionally - but she advised making an appearance every few months.
"Spending time with your husband's family is something you commit to when you get married," Pilossoph told Fox News Digital. "A good balance between 'powering through' and setting boundaries - but with little harmless white lies every now and again - is the best solution," she added.
Fox News Digital reached out to the original poster for comment.
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