Woman Furious After Husband Ruins the Meal She Spent 3.5 Hours Preparing for His Parents

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The wife had volunteered to make a meal for her husband's parents, as she enjoys cooking, but one error spoiled everything she had prepared.

At times, the effort and hard work someone invests in something are overlooked, and the feedback they receive can be disappointing. A woman experienced this firsthand when her husband forgot to put the dinner she had nearly four hours to cook in the fridge, and then decided to cancel their plans the following day. The woman, who preferred to be known by a different name, shared her experience on Mumsnet, seeking advice from others in the community.

"My husband and I are both 34. We've been in the midst of moving to a new house for the last two months and are now ready to host guests, meaning we have a dining table and chairs," the post started. "The move hasn't been easy, with some very stressful moments, but overall, it's been relatively smooth, and we don't have children." The woman decided to host her husband's parents, who are in their mid to late 60s, for dinner at their new home on a Tuesday evening. "I took on the responsibility of cooking. I made a starter, the main course, and a dessert on Monday night, all ready to be refrigerated for easy serving on Tuesday (since I would be coming in from work just 20 minutes before they were supposed to arrive, it made sense to prepare in advance)," she explained.

"I spent 3.5 hours in the kitchen cooking and baking on Monday, which completely took over my evening after work," she shared. "There was no argument; I had offered to do it, and I enjoy cooking. However, throughout those 3.5 hours, my husband kept distracting me by constantly going around the house and criticizing me." The wife tried to ask him to stop, but he didn't. "He probably complained to me five times about minor issues while I was cooking. The main dish required a long time in the oven. It was already 9:15 pm by then, and he had completely worn me out with his complaining. I told him I just wanted to take a shower and go to bed, and asked him to take the food out of the oven once the timer went off, which would have been at 10 pm."

Her spouse removed the dish from the oven but left it on the counter throughout the night. "He was glued to the TV until around midnight, which was way past the time it would have cooled down to be refrigerated," she disclosed. "I was so mad in the morning that after a night of complaining and criticizing me, he hadn't even considered putting the food away after I had spent so much time preparing it." The spouse explained, "The food's still good. It was wrapped in foil, so just open it and serve it tonight." The spouse countered, "It's a meat dish (with pork in) and I'm not comfortable feeding it to his parents, who are in their 60s, after leaving it out overnight in August."

"He called off the dinner plans and told his mom it was because we had a disagreement (which we did, but now I feel really embarrassed and almost ashamed that our evening was ruined because of us)." Comments flooded in with various opinions. @Maray1967 commented, "Pork can be risky - I would have thrown it out and made something else. He needs to learn some basic food safety." @Ineffable23 commented, "I wouldn't eat meat left out all night. Or I might eat it myself, but I definitely wouldn't serve it to anyone else." @InevitableNameChanger inquired, "Did you cook it yourself? I wouldn't serve a dish that had been left out overnight to anyone. Surely a good ready meal or something similar (Cook meal or something) would have been a better solution when the first dish was ruined? Canceling was excessive."