Man Is Done With Future SIL Mocking His GF’s Eating Habits, Asks Her To Leave Family Dinner (2024)

Food can be the thing that builds bridges between people. For example, people can enjoy certain types of food and build relationships over that enjoyment. At the same time, it can also be the thing that damages or ruins these bridges. Like when someone doesn’t like certain food and that, for some reason, annoys another person very much.

Today’s story is about a similar situation, where an autistic woman was bullied for having sensory issues related to food. Her bully was kicked out for her actions, and it turned into a “who’s the jerk here?” situation.

More info: Reddit

How should you react when you see your loved one picked on just because they have food-related sensory issues?

Image credits: Viridiana Rivera (not the actual photo)

A similar question was asked by the man who witnessed his autistic girlfriend being teased by his brother’s fiancée because she didn’t eat “authentic” ramen

Image credits: August de Richelieu (not the actual photo)

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Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

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The post’s author’s girlfriend, whom he called Kelly in the story, is autistic. One of her biggest sensory triggers is food. For example, she can’t eat certain vegetables as they are, but she doesn’t mind having them incorporated into the meal in other ways.

The OP’s brother, Kevin, recently got engaged to his girlfriend Laura. So, they came for dinner at the post author’s house, saying they had something to announce.

The man made a Japanese-themed dinner. The main dish was ramen made from scratch. And since his girlfriend doesn’t like beef or pork and his mother doesn’t eat pork, he made it with chicken. To Kelly’s portion, he also added some extra vegetables instead of eggs, which she’s not fond of. Everyone else had the standard meal.

During the first half an hour of the dinner, Laura kept picking on Kelly. She kept saying that Kelly can’t say she likes ramen, as her version was not authentic. The OP noticed how upset Kelly got by how she started to eat way slower than everyone else, which is one of her signs of anxiety.

Laura also tried to take some of Kelly’s ramen to prove her point, which distressed the woman even further. So, it’s no shock that it all resulted in an argument between the women, leading to tears.

After that, the OP asked his brother and his fiancée Laura to leave. Even the parents were horrified over Laura’s behavior and hinted she should apologize. Later that evening, the post’s author received a call from his brother calling him a jerk for kicking them out. Apparently, they were planning to reveal Laura’s pregnancy, and their announcement was ruined.

People online were completely sure who the actual jerk in the situation was — and it wasn’t the OP or Kelly. Of course — it was Laura. They dubbed her a “mean girl,” as she couldn’t stop picking on Kelly just because she has sensitivities to certain foods. As netizens said — not liking certain foods or having sensory issues with them doesn’t mean that you should be picked on.

For a broader understanding of autistic people’s sensory issues related to food,Bored Pandareached out to autism advocate Kaelynn Partlow (check out herInstagram,YouTube, andnonprofit organization) and Agustina from “The Autistic Life” (check out herInstagram, digital resourcesstore, and1-1 peer supportprogram).

Agustina said that sensory sensitivity and avoidance are only one part of autistic individual’s food sensitivities, as sensory seeking also exists: “Sensory seekers are often under-stimulated, so they will seek sensory stimuli to fulfill that need – in the context of food, this might look like having a strong preference for sweet, salty, or sour tastes, sometimes all combined!”

At the same time, Kaelynn voiced that when people think about sensory issues related to food, they usually think about taste. Yet, it’s not the only thing that can be related to an individual’s food sensitivities. According to her, the person can have food sensory issues related to:

• Taste
• Smell
• Texture
• Visual stimuli

Kaelynn continued: “It’s worth noting that it’s not our actual abilities to smell, touch, taste, hear, or see that are heightened. Rather, it’s our brain’s interpretation of those senses that is ‘turned up’ to a higher level than in most neurotypical people’s brains. When people say autistic brains are ‘wired differently,’ this is part of what they mean.”

These heightened interpretations can cause “extreme” or “unexpected” reactions to certain foods. If a person’s brain is sensorily overwhelmed by that food item, it can quickly turn into an aversion to it. “These aversions can manifest in a variety of reactions. Some people may tolerate being near aversive foods, others may decline aversive foods when offered, and others may have strong reactions to being anywhere near the food.”

Agustina noted that due to sensory sensitivities, many autistic individuals tend to gravitate towards eating the same foods on a daily basis to avoid the likelihood of experiencing sensory overload of unexpected flavors or textures.

She said: “Taste can be a major issue, with some finding strong flavors too intense, leading to preferences for more plain foods. Texture tends to be equally important, with certain textures, like crunchy, mushy, or slimy, being very dysregulating for some, leading to a strong preference for food with uniform textures and avoiding foods with mixed textures.”

The autism advocate Kaelynn says that forcing a person to tolerate an element of foods they find aversive can be physically painful to them. “When interacting with autistic people, I would urge you to be sensitive to this and respect the ‘no’ when someone declines certain foods.”

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