Sharing Food Spin-Off- Of Forks and Food Thieves

[dragonflies]

I have five brothers.  At my house growing up, it was eat as fast as you can b/c my brothers would take food off of your plate when you aren't looking.  My brother still steals food off my SILs plate.  Boy, she gets mad.
I steal food off of DH's plate but as I am 7 months preggo, he doesn't say much.

[Elle]

Slightly related - when we were little and my sister and I didn't want to share with each other we'd do something to the food so the other one wouldn't want it. For example, if there was 1 pancake left and I didn't want to share with my sis I'd lick the pancake. Yes, we were yelled at and yes, we quickly grew out of it.

I'm not very squicked out by germs. (I used to substitute teach in special ed classrooms. There was one class I repeatedly subbed for where I was lucky if I didn't get licked by the end of the day.) Everytime my sister does the lick/ fake sneeze thing, I'll lick it back. She's MUCH more grossed out by germs than I am 

[rashea]

Slightly related - when we were little and my sister and I didn't want to share with each other we'd do something to the food so the other one wouldn't want it. For example, if there was 1 pancake left and I didn't want to share with my sis I'd lick the pancake. Yes, we were yelled at and yes, we quickly grew out of it.

I used to put blue food coloring in chocolate chip cookies to keep my parents out of them. It worked too. Blue chocolate chip cookies may taste the same, but they don't look all that yummy. For a while, my sister and I color coded them. 1/3 of the batch was plain for my parents, 1/3 was red for my sister, and 1/3 was blue for me.

[nliedel]

My husband pilfered my cod!

We were on a cruise a couple of years ago. Now, I get seasick in a bathtub. I have never learned to take my Bonine the night before a cruise and I have often missed the first night's dinner. I love to cruise and am a dork because I think that I will not get sick this time. This time has never happened.

We were sailing on the Mariner of the Seas a couple years ago and I ordered this pesto crusted cod the first night. It was yummy! Sadly, I was ill about five minutes into dinner. We went down to the room with our dinners (Thanks to our waiters who made sure we got them in the room). I took a Bonine and fell asleep. I woke up an hour later and wanted my cod. It was gone. My husband was wiping his lips.

I was not pleased.

Cod thief

[moonstruckSue]

I'm so happy my story has inspired others to share! I always thought I was the 'wierdo' (like my dad) who didn't like sharing from her plate.

I will admit, that I let my boyfriend steal a french fry or two now that we've been d@ting so long, and he always says "I"m SAVING YOUR LIFE! This fry is poison!" as he eats it. I usually steal a soda from his stash later and say "Its POISON! I do this because I LOVE you!"

(Tho I can't do that as much since the doctor figured out caffeine is one of my migraine triggers. Stupid caffeine...)

My 'MIL' is the notorious one. Like I said before, she doesn't really care or think about about other people's feelings (she's pretty self-centered), and that extends to the dinner table.

We'd all gone out to eat, the BF, his brother, the MIL and Grandma. We were at a small Italian Bistro, and they all ordered family style - but they all ordered dishes with meat or shrimp in them. I don't eat meat and I'm allergic to shrimp, so I said to everyone "ok, I suppose then I'll just order some brushetta and minestrone for myself since I can't eat any of that" and then I did. Everyone at the table heard me say this, and my boyfriend even apologized, because he didn't realize I'd been 'left out' of their choices. They were all looking at me and it *seemed* like they'd all heard this exchange and understood it...

Even though I requested it come as my meal, they brought my soup and brushetta out early, like an appetizer. I wasn't too bothered, and was going to let it sit until their food arrived, but they all assured me it was okay. Even Grandma "oh no, don't let it get cold on our account..."

Well, I load up some bread with tomatoes and am taking a bite when like a flash, MIL loads up the biggest piece of bread with HALF OF THE TOMATOES and says "OH I LOVE BROO-SHEDDA!" (adding insult to injury because we'd all just had a small chat where I was teaching them the proper Italian pronunciations of the foods we were going to be eating...)

I was so taken aback, because it was clearly decided at the table that I was eating something separate. The boyfriend actually spoke up first...

BF: MOM! What are you DOING?
MIL: What? I'm eating.
BF: No. That is Sue's DINNER.
MIL: And more is coming, gosh...
BF: NO MOM. She can't have our food, you're being rude!
MIL: OH. *looks miffed* Well I didn't know!!

We sit in silence for a bit and I decide to start in on my soup, so I move the brushetta to the side a bit........

.....and SHE AGAIN REACHES FOR MY FOOD! This time BF's Brother said something and stopped her (I didn't even realize she was doing it-she had the spoon in the tomatoes and was reaching for bread...)

BF's Brother: MOM! SERIOUSLY!
MIL: WHAT?!
BF's Brother: THAT. IS. SUE'S. DINNER. STOP IT!
MIL: This is the appetizer!
BF: NO ITS NOT MOM!
MIL: Why are you two yelling at me??
BF: You can't just eat Sue's food mom. This is ALL she has.
MIL: Isn't she going to eat dinner?
BF's Brother: THIS IS HER DINNER!!!
MIL: *her eyes widen and it FINALLY dawns on her* OH! I didn't know!

I am sitting there staring at my soup like I wish it would envelope me, when Grandma pipes up:

Grandma: SUE! Aren't you going to share the soup?!

Insert the entire exchange all over again. This time with Grandma.

Then dinner arrives and Grandma offers me some of her Italian sausage about 5 times. I politely decline it and finally say "Grandma, I'm sorry, but I don't eat meat. But thank you for the offer."

Then MIL pipes up:

"Then why did you order all this meat with us?"
BF: MOM! She didn't! She is only having soup and the appetizer.
MIL: OH! Was that your DINNER?! That's not enough food!


  *sigh* And THAT is what its like to eat with my MIL in a restaurant.

I now try to order things that I know she doesn't like, or I get just a soup or salad so its hard to 'share' my food, because other wise, she really does keep this up. The BF's brother took the one time to catch on, my BF caught on real quick....and even Grandma gets it *most* of the time. But MIL can't seem to grasp the concept that she is not welcome to my food.

*sigh*

[willow08]

Wow, Moonstruck Sue. Well, at least your SO sticks up for you! So good for both of you. MIL sounds like a total pain.

[moonstruckSue]

Wow, Moonstruck Sue. Well, at least your SO sticks up for you! So good for both of you. MIL sounds like a total pain.

Oh, if I had the time, I could fill my own forum up with stories about her.

Heh, tho it does 'soften the blow' to be able to read about people *worse* than her (dresser queen, Queen Bee, the crazy HOA lady,etc...); I love checking for updates here!

[caranfin]

Oh my goodness, Sue, I shouldn't laugh at your plight, but that's just hysterical!

[Elle]

Slightly related - when we were little and my sister and I didn't want to share with each other we'd do something to the food so the other one wouldn't want it. For example, if there was 1 pancake left and I didn't want to share with my sis I'd lick the pancake. Yes, we were yelled at and yes, we quickly grew out of it.

I used to put blue food coloring in chocolate chip cookies to keep my parents out of them. It worked too. Blue chocolate chip cookies may taste the same, but they don't look all that yummy. For a while, my sister and I color coded them. 1/3 of the batch was plain for my parents, 1/3 was red for my sister, and 1/3 was blue for me.

That is BRILLIANT!

[moonstruckSue]

Oh my goodness, Sue, I shouldn't laugh at your plight, but that's just hysterical!

I can laugh about it now, and the BF even likes to tell it as an illustration to good friends of 'what mom is like'...

And that night did indeed teach me the magic phrase for making Grandma not want any of your food: "oh, its pretty spicy"

I has a weapon!

[Bathing One]

Wow, Moonstruck Sue. Well, at least your SO sticks up for you! So good for both of you. MIL sounds like a total pain.

Oh, if I had the time, I could fill my own forum up with stories about her.

I'd love to hear more!

[horsphreak]

My husband pilfered my cod!

We were on a cruise a couple of years ago. Now, I get seasick in a bathtub. I have never learned to take my Bonine the night before a cruise and I have often missed the first night's dinner. I love to cruise and am a dork because I think that I will not get sick this time. This time has never happened.

We were sailing on the Mariner of the Seas a couple years ago and I ordered this pesto crusted cod the first night. It was yummy! Sadly, I was ill about five minutes into dinner. We went down to the room with our dinners (Thanks to our waiters who made sure we got them in the room). I took a Bonine and fell asleep. I woke up an hour later and wanted my cod. It was gone. My husband was wiping his lips.

I was not pleased.

Cod thief

Completely OT, but I went on one of that ship's first trips! It was amazing.

[Elpie]

Freshman year of college, and there was a crowd of us dorm-ies who would walk the .67 miles to dinner and back every night. It quickly became share-a-thons (steal-a-thons?) for all sorts of items (drinks and food) with very little thought to germ protection. My next door neighbor Kelly made it clear early on that she didn't want to share germs, but would pass us her portions when she was finished.

Poor thing was so peeved when she contracted Mono and no one else did...

[Bobby]

My husband almost always finishes his dinner first (I'm a slow eater, probably because I take small bites), and will sometimes claim "Law of the Jungle" by sneaking in a bite or two of mine. But he always announces it jokingly, and I let him do it. Besides...he knows he's going to get what I don't finish anyway. It's a good thing he exercises every day, or he'd be really overweight from eating 1.5 dinners when we go out.

He also will almost always take a bite of whatever he gets me if I ask him to get me something from the fridge (ice cream, candy bar, whatever). I don't begrudge him that --  It's a serving tax

[purplemuse]

I'm so happy my story has inspired others to share! I always thought I was the 'wierdo' (like my dad) who didn't like sharing from her plate.

Not a weirdo in my books  

I felt so angry on your behalf reading your story (I'm another one who doesn't like people eating her food without permission), but I think it's great that your BF and his brother "got" what was going on and were able to keep MIL at bay (I've heard a lot of examples, some on this site, where the attitude of the SO and in-laws is "that's just the way we do things; get over it").