As important as it is to have friends, some of us are not all that fond of company, especially larger dinner parties. We greatly prefer focusing on a few favorite people.
This is especially true if we know some people who tend to take advantage of our hospitality, cringed the members of the “Am I Overreacting?” (AIO) subReddit.
Redditor BidenAlwaysForgets wanted to enjoy the nice change in weather by doing a barbecue for himself, his wife, and their son, so he bought the best ingredients.
When his wife then invited some friends over, leaving the Original Poster (OP) with little to enjoy, he decided to excuse himself and have some quiet time instead of a social gathering.
They asked the sub:
“Am I overreacting by being annoyed that my wife’s friends and husband dropped in on us for dinner?”
The OP’s wife ruined her husband’s plans for enjoying the nice weather.
“I planned a cookout for my wife and my son since we had some warm weather. I went and got some really nice steaks.”
“While prepping everything, her friend called and invited herself and her husband over. My wife just told them to stop and get steaks to cook. She did not tell me, so I didn’t know anything until they arrived.”
“I was annoyed. I didn’t want company. But I went with it.”
The visit continued to get worse.
“I cooked the food, and when it came time to sit down, everyone grabbed their food, and when I grabbed mine, my steak was gone. This motherf**ker took my steak and was already eating it and then said, ‘Oh my bad, did I grab the wrong one? I can’t tell the difference.'”
“You mean to tell me you can’t tell the difference between my fresh cut local butcher two-inch thick 24.99 a pound Delmonico compared to your (literally) Walmart purchased $8.99 per pound whatever it was?”
The OP decided to do something for himself.
“I left and went to a steakhouse and told them to have fun.”
“I got a perfectly seared 32 oz Delmonico, French onion soup, a twice-baked potato, asparagus, two awesome Old Fashions, and a tiramisu for dessert, so at least something good came out of it.”
“My wife got upset at me and said that to most people, ‘steak is steak,’ and that I should have let it go.”
“AIO?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NOR: Not Overreacting
- YOR: You’re Overreacting
Some understood the OP’s frustration and agreed that not all steak is the same.
“NOR. Steak isn’t steak. I would have been heated and probably reacted the same way. He definitely knew and took yours because it looked better. F**k that guy.” – SpicyPom86
“They sound like the type of people who turn up to a party with light beer and drink others’ premium beers and say, ‘beer is beer.'” – Frosty-Marsupial222
“‘I can’t tell the difference.’ I solve conundrums like that with a simple question: ‘Which one is mine?’ He 100% knew what he was doing!” – Hrafyn
“Buy her cheap lean cuts from now on. Don’t waste good meat if it’s all the same to her. Splurge and buy the two-inch thick steak for yourself and the $8.99 steak for your wife.”
“It can also work with pork chops or giving frozen salmon to your wife while OP eats the fresh salmon. After all, Fish is fish.” – Vivid_Percentage5560
“NOR. He knew exactly what he did, and he just wanted the good steak.” – Reasonable_Sale8611
“There are people I’ve met who generally can’t tell the difference and legitimately don’t give a damn about the quality of food. They’re few and far between, but they exist.”
“The problem is that those people also won’t look at something and pick the highest quality one there. They’ll eat whatever you give them, and they don’t care.”
“So the whole ‘people can’t tell the difference’ thing kind of rings hollow if you immediately go for the nicest piece of steak you see and don’t just grab whatever. I think he just tried to disguise himself as one of those people who can’t tell the difference, but did a terrible job of keeping up the ruse, quickly outing himself as the cheapskate who wanted high-quality steak on someone else’s dime.” – Neveronlyadream
“NOR, OP. I am one of those people who legitimately can not tell the difference between an $80 steak and an $8, other than maybe tenderness.”
“BUT, if I’m crashing someone else’s cookout, I take what I’m served, or if they are all on the same plate, I ask, ‘Is there a difference/which one is mine?”‘”
“It’s common courtesy when a guest at someone else’s house.” – CryptographerLost407
“It’s both a wife problem and a problem with her friend’s husband. The husband obviously knew the difference and disrespected you in your home.”
“While I would not necessarily ban them from your home, I would make it clear to your wife that they are lousy dinner guests and are never welcome to a meal in your house again. I would also discuss with your wife not inviting people over without it being a mutual decision.” – Rhiannon1954
Others sympathized with the OP and shared experiences with a similar vibe.
“I used to have a buddy like this. He would bring a bag of chips and some dogwater beer to every event, and then proceed to binge drink everyone else’s stuff because ‘alcohol is alcohol.'”
“Worked out well when he stole a few of my Tripels at a party, not realizing they were basically two times the normal beer ABV and guzzled them down, only to black out an hour or so later and puke everywhere and be hungover as all hell the next day.”
“Moral of that story, don’t steal other people’s s**t.” – stonk_fish
“Bruh, during the pandemic, my kids were in a pod with the kids of two other families. We got together for an early afternoon strategy session. As the hosts, we supplied some Crudités so folks had something to eat.”
“We wrap up the meeting, and the other families go, ‘So what’s for dinner?’ I figured it was an innocent question, so I let them know that I’m going to do some brats and peppers cooked in beer with some nice pretzel bread and such.”
“Then they just sat there and kept talking amongst themselves after the meeting ended until it dawned on me that they just figured we would make them dinner.”
“I didn’t have nearly enough food, but I also didn’t want this pod thing to implode right out of the gate, so I played nice and tried to stretch food for two adults and two children out enough for six adults and five children. Ended up going to bed hungry myself so others would have enough to eat.”
“Needless to say, that pod situation imploded after about 6 months due to a knockdown, drag-out fight between the two other families. That time they met at our house, and I brought three pizzas and a case of beer cause I wasn’t about to get hoodwinked again.” – GodisanAtheistOG
“I had a co-worker who always brought a jar of pickles to our potlucks.”
“No one ate the pickles, so they remained unopened, and he just brought the same jar every time. Never brought anything else, not so much as paper plates or a bag of chips.” – LobabyChick
“Oh no, that motherf**ker would never be welcome in my house again.”
“I once went to a locally famous steak place and got their signature 36 oz Bone-in Ribeye, dry aged for 30 days. I brought half of it home, planning to eat it the next night.”
“I walked in the door the next night as my best friend and roommate was finishing it. He took one look at my face, grabbed his keys, and said, ‘Get in my car and tell me how to get to this place.'”
“We are still best friends after almost 30 years later because he understood the only way to fix a f**kup that bad is to immediately apologize and replace what was taken.” – TreyRyan3
“NOR. My husband once ate my birthday leftovers. His retribution included handing me his debit card, so that his next night off? I went back to the restaurant, sat at the bar, had a lovely glass of Montepulciano, and a full plate of the original dish.”
“When I came home with leftovers, I labeled them: do not touch, unless you want a divorce… I’m still married.” – Alternative-Dig-2066
“I’m cracking up reading this, because two instances of this happened to me twice recently.”
“One of the times I was literally coming back from the store with all the steaks and fixings for my family, ready to make some smoked old-fashioned’s to boot… Looking forward to relaxing by the grill with a game on under the porch with a drink with the wife… then I got a text from the wife… to bring all the stuff over to a neighbor’s house to cook over there and hang out… I was boiling, lol.”
“Nah, brother. To both of us, ‘no’ is a complete sentence. NOR.” – Possible_Mind_965
The subReddit completely understood the OP’s frustration, noting that the friend could at least have checked in before selecting a steak, though he should have waited until the host joined the table anyway.
But the biggest problem everyone could see was actually the OP’s wife, who did not communicate with her husband about having friends over and later decided to defend them instead of him.