Mom Asks If She Was Wrong To Sneak Fake Meat Into Family's Meal

Ashley Hunte
A fork with spaghetti on it.
Unsplash | Atie Nabat

Everyone is entitled to their food preferences, and what they want and don't want to eat at any given time. Some people will eat a little bit of everything, while others prefer to avoid meat or other animal products.

There are also some who avoid meat substitutes, which is okay too. But for one family, food choices became a true point of contention.

A wife and mother posted her confession to Reddit.

Skewers made with fried tofu pieces.
Unsplash | Ella Olsson

The user, cheekylilbooger, posted her story about how she and her daughters tricked her husband and son into eating meat substitutes, which is something they actively say they dislike.

"My two daughters are vegetarian but my husband and son are not. I'm probably what they would call a 'flexitarian.'"

A bowl with a large piece of tofu in it.
Unsplash | Sherman Kwan

"My son and husband always turn up their noses at tofu or any other meat alternatives - they say it's just 'weird' that it's made to resemble real meat, so it's really the concept and not the taste."

"There are no allergies."

Two people preparing a variety of vegetables for a meal.
Unsplash | Maarten van den Heuvel

"My family and I often make two versions of dinner - one meat, one real, and twice the amount of pots and pans. There is an equal distribution of cleaning and cooking in this house, thankfully."

"My daughters had a fun prank idea of making two pots of spaghetti sauce, under the pretense that one was meat (they were both the soy ground beef)."

A plate of spaghetti and meatballs.
Unsplash | Carolina Cossío

"The goal here was to see if their brother and father actually hated the meat and to see if we could maybe save some dishes and time (in the future)."

"Everyone loved dinner, both husband and son finished their plates."

A table with multiple dishes; one of which has spaghetti in it.
Unsplash | Nerfee Mirandilla

"This was when my youngest couldn't hold it in anymore and told them. They both got VERY upset about being fed something other than what they were told."

The user finished her post by asking if she was in the wrong for this whole ordeal.

Thousands of commenters shared their own opinions.

A person cutting into a cut of cooked beef.
Unsplash | José Ignacio Pompé

Though some defended OP and her daughters, the general consensus was that she was, in fact, the jerk in this situation because of the way she tricked her husband and son into eating something they didn't want.

Some equated it to a meat eater versus vegetarian debate.

A pile of various produce items, including tomatoes, corn, and mushrooms.
Unsplash | Randy Fath

Many commenters found that this isn't a huge deal because the husband and brother eat vegetables anyway. They found that the husband and brother were simply able to try something they otherwise wouldn't want.

But others took issue with the way OP messed with the food.

A pot with some kind of meat sauce in it.
Unsplash | Food Photographer | Jennifer Pallian

Some went as far as to say that this would be considered as food tampering, since the husband and son were tricked into eating meat substitutes under false pretenses.

But at the end of the day, this issue comes down to trust.

A pasta dish with a cream based sauce.
Unsplash | amirali mirhashemian

One commenter wrote, "This is not really a meat eater / vegetarian issue. Tricking someone into eating something other than what they thought they were eating is a massive breach of trust, the fact that the substitution is harmless is irrelevant."

"That your aim was clearly to shame or embarrass them over their dietary preferences does not help."

A puzzled looking woman in a jean jacket
Unsplash | Sherise VD

It's less about the food itself, and more about the fact that OP lied about the meal just to prove a point, which isn't a very nice thing to do.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!