Sister-in-Law’s Strict Food Policies Push Sibling to Their Limit, but Internet Sees Simple Solution

An anonymous poster seeks advice from the Reddit community after finding themselves in a tense situation with their sister-in-law over food and storage issues. 

The poster explains that they live in an apartment below their brother and sister-in-law’s home, which she owns.

“My brother wants to hang out often, and she says she does too,” the poster writes. “We’ll play games or binge a bit of TV. It’s good. Somewhere between a guest and roommate vibe.” 

The poster inevitably gets hungry during these lengthy visits. Initially, they would just ask for snacks, which was fine at first. However, as time went on, the sister-in-law’s attitude changed, and they could sense some tension brewing.

They attempted to solve the issue by bringing their own snacks, but encountered a new problem as the sister-in-law wouldn’t let them “leave anything there for the next time.”

“No bag of chips, no frozen cherries, nothing, not even drinks in the drink fridge anymore,” the poster explains.

The sister-in-law’s behavior seems to stem from what the poster describes as “extreme anxiety about things that don’t ‘belong’ in her house.” The Redditor says her anxiety has led to many discussions about what her brother can and can’t have in the house.

The situation came to a head over some leftover steak. After a family dinner, the sister-in-law asked if they wanted to take some leftovers downstairs to their apartment, which they declined. The next day, during a hangout, the poster helped themself to some of the remaining steak in their brother and sister-in-law’s fridge.

However, this sent the sister-in-law over the edge, and she voiced her frustration to her husband, who then “guilt tripped” the poster about “eating their food.”

The poster insisted they “would pay” for the food, and the brother then asked them to go grocery shopping with him.

“After shopping he tells me how mad she is getting about the food, especially the steak,” the poster recounts. 

However, the sibling tells their brother that they are “not apologizing” for eating the steak, as the couple had “offered it previously.”

The brother responded by saying that once the food is “in their house,” the sibling “can’t eat it.”

The Redditor’s “last straw” came days later when the sister-in-law came over to help them move a plant. However, she arrived hours after the poster’s call for help, interrupting their work call.

The incident, combined with the ongoing food issues, left them frustrated and considering limiting their interactions. 

“I’m to the point I don’t want to casually hang out,” they write. “I like her for other reasons but this is too much. She is judgmental and passive-aggressive.” 

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The poster notes that they are very close with their brother and believe he is also growing increasingly frustrated with his wife’s actions. “I know my brother better than he knows himself,” they write. “I see it in the way he has to tell me things, he isn’t thrilled about her behavior.”

The poster now wonders what they should do, as they don’t want to cause issues in their relationship, but they also don’t feel fully welcomed. 

Most Redditors suggested a simple solution to the problem, urging the poster to bring single-serving sizes of food when they all hang out.

“Just carry your snacks up and then take them back down lmao,” one person wrote. “Like you said, it’s ONE STANDARD SIZED BAG OF CHIPS.”

“OMG how do you not see this,” another chimed in. “Just bring snacks upstairs when you visit and take them down when you leave. Like a normal person. Who just eats out of someone else’s fridge.”