Husband’s Food Preferences for Homemade Family Meals Are Driving Wife ‘Crazy’

A wife’s patience for her husband’s strict food requests has boiled over.

The woman, who is a mother and also works full-time, admitted on the U.K. online parenting forum Mumsnet that she no longer has “the time or the energy” to acquiesce to her partner’s food preferences or cook separate meals in order to not get bored with repeat dishes.

“I’m struggling with my husband and the family meals I make. He is incredibly fussy or particular,” the woman began her post, adding: “None of these preferences are allergy related.”

Sharing what her husband refuses to eat, she detailed, “No creamy dishes (things like ‘marry me’ chicken or honey mustard chicken are a no-no), no sour cream or mayonnaise (would simply refuse something like beef stroganoff), no chunky vegetable dishes, no salads, refuses to eat meals with pie or pastries, won’t eat fish, no stews or soups (hates stews and soups are ‘not a meal’ apparently), jacket potatoes will only eat with beans and must have meat on the side [and] hates egg dishes so meals like quiche or omelette are out of the question.”

“Some pasta variation, some curry variation, some meat and veg variation — and I’m at my wit’s end,” she wrote. “I’m craving something different but every time he will say, ‘Does it have XYZ in it? Why is the veg all chunky? You know I don’t like this sort of thing’ … If he had it his way, we would BBQ meat every night and eat it with the same veg and some form of side dish.”

“I thought about asking him to cook his own meal but then I have the issue of our kids seeing us eating two different things and say, ‘Well if daddy can have something different why can’t I — which will stress me out even more,” she further explained. “I want them to eat a variety of food and not become so regimented like their father.”

Now, after constantly hearing her husband tell her, “I like what I like,” the woman turned to the Mumsnet forum to ask for advice from other mothers.

“I would buy 14 ready meals that he will eat — and then make whatever I wanted for me and the kids,” one user replied. “If he doesn’t like it he can make something different. Don’t worry about the kids seeing something different, just say daddy can’t have ours.”

Another Mumsnet user suggested giving the man a taste of his own medicine.

“I would compromise by cooking what I want roughly half the time and what he likes the rest of the time,” they responded. “If he comments on the food, just use his own words back at him: ‘I like what I like.’ ”