Eating dinner at a friend’s, neighbor’s, or family’s house is supposed to be a fun time, however, for some, it didn’t work out that way. Houseguests share the horrible experience of eating dinner at someone else’s house. Content has been edited for clarity.
Can We Have A Piece?
“When I was sixteen, my best friend and I started delivering newspapers. The neighborhood was brand new and half the houses didn’t have addresses so we were having a very hard time getting papers delivered.
We talked to the teenager who had the route before us and he offered to help us figure it out. He was younger than us and developed a huge crush on both of us, so he invited us to dinner at his parent’s house. Since he was so sweet, we said yes and met him that Friday for dinner.
Now I want you to know I am not being judgmental because I’ve had difficulty with my weight at times myself. But his parents and brother and sisters were very obese, I mean huge. We were surprised because our little friend wasn’t overweight at all.
They were all sitting in the living room watching TV and didn’t even acknowledge us when he introduced us. In front of each family member sat two huge almost empty boxes of what had been extra-large supreme pizzas. You heard me right. Every person in the room had just polished off almost two huge pizzas each! To this day I still can’t believe that five people were even able to eat a total of ten supreme extra-large pizzas!
Our friend asked his mom where our pizza was and his mom stuck out her thumb in the general direction of the kitchen. Into the kitchen we went, hungry and ready to chow down on some pizza. On the counter sat an almost completely-eaten cheese pizza. There were exactly three pieces left and they were little.
Our friend turned bright red, he was so embarrassed. He left the kitchen telling us our pizza must be somewhere else and he would go ask his mom. We heard him nicely ask his mom if we could have a few more pieces from their leftover pizzas. An innocent request seeing that there were freaking TEN pizzas sitting right there. That’s when she lost it.
She started screaming at this poor sweet guy telling him, ‘It’s not my job to feed your stupid friends! If they don’t appreciate the two pieces we saved for them, then they can just leave and not let the screen door hit them on the way out!’
And this sweet little fourteen-year-old, full of raging testosterone and at an age where kids are so easily embarrassed, started to cry and ran outside. We followed him and calmed him down. We told him how we weren’t even hungry so it was no big deal. Then we took him to Burger King and we all pigged out on cheeseburgers and fries. Then the very next evening we ordered a big ol’ pizza delivered to his house with specific instructions to make it very clear that it was for him and no one else!
Mean people suck!”
The Meat Eater Stole Christmas
“I’m Vegetarian. I’m not fussy about what I eat as long as there isn’t any meat. For some reason, all my family are insulted by me being a vegetarian.
I went for Christmas dinner at my brother’s.
He asked, ‘What do you want to eat?’
I said, ‘Just the vegetables are fine.’
He said, ‘Okay. The roasted potatoes are in goose fat, so do you want me to make you separate ones?’
I declined as he was already cooking 4 different roasts as well as all the veggies.
Sitting down for dinner, he gave me my plate with roast potatoes, which he had roasted in vegetable oil in a separate oven. I thought that was nice a gesture, but then his friend started making rude remarks about him not understanding vegetarians.
He drilled me throughout dinner, ‘Why are you vegetarian?’
‘You’re missing out on so many flavors.’
‘Bacon fats improve everything.’
‘If you were stuck on a deserted island, would you eat an animal?’
I finally replied, ‘First, I don’t leave my country so it wouldn’t happen. And secondly, I would eat you first before any animal.’
His remarks lasted for 45 minutes. Now I didn’t go vegetarian because I didn’t like meat, I went because of the unhealthy diet I was eating. I would go days without eating fruit or vegetables and binge on meat and bread uncontrollably. I am an all-or-nothing person. I either eat lots of something or nothing. I also don’t care if you are eating meat in front of me or if I cook meat for you but I’m not eating it myself. I don’t mind questions about my food choices but I don’t expect a stranger to disparage my choices for so long, especially over Christmas dinner.”
“Who Behaves Like This With Their Dad?”
“When I was in college, I and a few other people from a class were invited to a mutual friend’s house for dinner.
My friend’s parents were there and they were gracious and friendly hosts. Everything started off fine, we ate some delicious Italian food and talked about a bunch of different things. When it came time to clear the table, we all offered to help with clean up and dishes. My friend, however, told us to sit down and had his parents clear the table. I thought that was really weird. Who makes their 55-year-old parents clean up after their adult friends? Perhaps we didn’t have to help with the dishes, but we wanted to help clean up the table.
After dinner, we went into his living room and continued chatting, and started playing pool. His dad came in after cleaning up and I started to have a great conversation with him. He was a foreign policy expert and I was learning a lot about a subject of great interest to me.
His son (my classmate/friend) came over and said, ‘Come on, dad! Eff off! Nobody wants to hear your boring government shit.’
The look on my face probably betrayed my shock at the disrespect he just showed his dad in front of us. I wasn’t the only one with that look, the room fell silent.
His dad looked embarrassed and said, ‘Come on kid. Don’t talk to me like that in front of your friends.’
His son replied, ‘Whatever dad, just go away.’
In my mind, I was thinking, ‘What the heck? Who behaves like this with their dad?’
If I did something like that my dad would knock my block off and I’d deserve it.
After that, all of us quickly wrapped up our conversations and left. We all came in one car for some reason. The conversation during the car ride back to campus was about how we were all shocked at how this guy behaved. Who the heck talks to their parents like that, and in front of company no less?
We no longer talk to that miscreant.”
Hope You’re Not Hungry
“My neighbor was very forthright. Some would say tactless. The first time I ever met her, shortly after moving onto the street, she told me, ‘You seem like a very anxious person. You should consider homeopathy.’
It was an interesting statement to make to someone you’ve just met and don’t know. There were few people on my street who could tolerate her for this reason. She just said things that make most people cringe, but I had a strange tolerance for people’s quirks, so long as I know they mean well.
She came round our house one day, back when I was married. She said she was having a few of the neighbors at her house for a soirée. She handed my husband and me an invitation.
‘Do eat dinner before you come, because I won’t be serving food, just nibbles.’ She said.
My (ex) husband wasn’t too keen, because… well…because…he’d met her! But, I insisted it would be rude to turn her down.
So we showed up at her door on the designated night and time. Our bellies were full. We’d had our dinner beforehand, just as we’d been instructed.
When she answered the door, it was almost as if we’d caught her unawares. For a split second, I thought maybe we’d got the date mixed up.
But, she soon invited us in.
‘Phew,’ we thought. ‘At least our other neighbors will help take the edge off this already awkward start.’
Except, there were no other neighbors. There was no one else there. Just her and her husband.
Hmmm…
She waved her hand and muttered something about how everyone else she’d invited was busy. Then she and her husband began to serve themselves up their dinner at the table! Two place settings.
I thought, ‘What the heck?!’
‘Oh, would you two like some?’ she asked, as her husband placed her plate in front of her.
‘Well, erm, actually no. Because we’ve already had dinner. Like you told us to. Remember?’ I replied.
‘Oh, well, we’ve not had dinner, so we need to eat,’ she informed us. ‘Have a seat.’
So, that was the night we sat at a table like awkward interlopers, just watching two people we barely knew eat their dinner.
It was seriously the oddest experience. After they’d finished eating, we chatted with them for a bit, then we said our goodbyes and walked across the road, toward our house.
My husband and I didn’t even look at each other as we walked away from their house. We stared straight ahead, and all I heard was his voice mutter ‘Never. Again.’
I couldn’t argue with him.”