Mom Called 'Disrespectful' For Breaking Sister-In-Law's 'Pointless' Microwave Rules To Make Food For Her Son
Her frustration is understandable, but shouldn't you respect people's rules when you're in their home?
Rostislav_Sedlacek via Getty Images / Holly Rae Garcia, PeopleImages.com - Yuri A via Shutterstock A mom on Reddit is in hot water with her family after flouting her sister-in-law's stringent rules about what goes down in her kitchen.
All of us have our own way of doing things, but when we're in other people's spaces, we need to respect their rules, right? This mom seems to have missed that memo, and people couldn't help but harshly criticize the way she handled things.
A mom has landed in major hot water after disrespecting 'pointless' dietary rules her sister-in-law set for religious reasons.
It's not clear exactly what religion the woman's sister-in-law, Tisha, adheres to, but from what the Redditor describes, it sounds like she keeps kosher, a set of dietary and food preparation rules that some Jewish people follow.
As the video below explains, keeping a kosher kitchen requires a rabbi's blessing and involves strict adherence to procedures for mixing and preparing different kinds of foods.
The mom on Reddit, however, thinks Tisha's rules are pointless. "She's not nearly as devout as when she grew up," she writes of Tisha, besides her adherence to "very specific dietary laws." She feels this is "very legalistic and way beyond the point of any actual rules," but while Tisha's rules may be difficult to understand by an outsider, it's not really for this mom to judge the validity of them, right?
Photo: Reddit
The sister-in-law's rules mean the mom has to prepare her son's food in a separate microwave in the basement.
To be fair, Tisha's rules are incredibly strict and lengthy. "She had my brother change his whole kitchen to fit these dietary rules," the mom writes. "He spent a fortune of money and now has two dishwashers." And she says Tisha and her brother "won't let any food that Tisha doesn't pre-approve into the house. She either has to cook everything or they have to drive an hour to get food at restaurants she's okay with."
Photo: Reddit
But religious rules are religious rules and it's not really up to any of us to question the ways people run their own homes, right? For this mom, things have gone entirely too far. Her son, who she believes may be autistic, "has sensory issues...as well as chronic GERD," she writes, "[so] whenever we go anywhere to eat I pack food for him."
Tisha's rules mean her son's food has to be prepared in an old microwave in the basement, in old bowls that keep his food separate from Tisha's.
Normally it all works out fine, but on a recent visit, everything went haywire. During a recent visit, the mom found the basement microwave to be broken, "so I just went and heated up his food in the kitchen." Which, of course, turned out to be the wrong answer. "Tisha walked in while I was doing it and lost her mind," she writes.
A family-wide conflict soon erupted, with Tisha "freaking out about what was in my son's lunch...borderline hysterical," her son crying, "my husband and brother...going at each other" and general chaos ensuing — all "over some dino nuggets," as she put it.
Photo: Reddit
She soon received a text message from her brother about how "disrespectful" she was, and her mother urged her to apologize. But she refuses, saying it's actually she who is owed the apology.
People on Reddit were split on the matter.
Some felt the mom disrespecting dietary rules, especially religious ones, was a clear case of violating someone's boundaries. But others felt both women were in the wrong — Tisha for not alerting the mom to the broken microwave, and the mom for not asking before using the kosher microwave.
Photo: Reddit
Of course, it's just as possible that Tisha and the mom's brother had no idea the basement microwave was broken. Likewise, the mom's frustration over the further complication of the already difficult task of managing her son's eating habits is understandable.
But one Redditor summed the situation up pretty clearly. "Being kosher is a BIG DEAL. Dietary restrictions in some religions are a VERY BIG DEAL… Clearly if they re-did their entire kitchen to follow those restrictions, it is a BIG DEAL to them." Given that, they couldn't help but wonder "what makes people think that it’s ok to disrespect someone’s home like that."
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social media and human interest topics.