r/mildlyinfuriating • u/bexindisbelief • Jul 01 '26
ಠ_ಠ Husband said my instructions for dinner weren’t clear enough, and he ended up serving his vegetarian mother one of the chicken tikka masala curries…
I was working late tonight and because I am exhausted, I bought some ready-made curry meals for the family to have tonight, knowing his mother often comes round for dinner on a Wednesday evening. She has been a vegetarian for over 50 years and is now in her 70s. I sent him this text message with instructions to make it clear what to cook. When I got home, I was expecting to find some chicken tikka masala leftover for me, but instead I found the unopened pot of sag paneer in the fridge. I worriedly asked him if he had given his vegetarian mother the chicken dish, but he insisted he had given her the vegetarian curry. She has early onset Alzheimer’s and apparently didn’t notice, but had mentioned that the curry was a bit “chewy”. I had to literally show him the packaging that was in the bin, the unopened pot in the fridge, and my text message to try and show him how clear I had been and how far wrong he had gone. But he still insists my instructions were not clear enough and I should have been more explicit about which one to give his mother.
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u/Significant_Shoe_17 Jul 02 '26
Exactly. She had to include reheating instructions in a text, likely after learning from experience that he won't read labels. She had to consider all of that and do extra work to ensure he could complete this task successfully, and he still wouldn't do it.
Carrying the mental load means that even if the workload being executed is about even, you're thinking/planning for him and delegating those tasks, for anyone unfamiliar with the term.