Husband secretly breaks vegetarian diet he promised his wife, 'I thought it was a harmless lie.' AITA?
"AITA for secretly breaking the vegetarian diet I promised to follow with my wife?"
I (M32) and my wife (F30) have been married for 5 years and have a 5-year-old son. About 6 months ago, my wife decided to become a vegetarian for ethical and environmental reasons. She asked me to support her in this decision and follow the same diet. I agreed, but I must confess I wasn't very enthusiastic about it.
Initially, I tried to adapt to the new diet, but I soon realized it wasn't for me. I missed the taste and texture of meat, and vegetarian alternatives didn't satisfy me. I also didn't see much difference in my health or weight. I started getting irritable and moody because of the lack of meat.
So, I decided to secretly break the diet. I started going to a fast-food restaurant near my workplace before heading home and had a sandwich with meat. I felt much better afterward and thought I wasn't causing harm to anyone. I didn't tell my wife because I didn't want to start a fight. I thought it was just a harmless lie.
However, a few weeks ago, she found out. She was doing our laundry and saw the fast-food receipt in my pocket. She confronted me and asked if I was eating meat. I couldn't deny it and admitted that I had been breaking the diet for months. She was furious with me and called me a liar and a traitor. She said I was being dishonest with her.
I tried to explain that I just wanted to eat what I liked and had no intention of hurting her. She didn't want to listen and has been giving me the silent treatment. She only interacts with our son. I feel a bit guilty, but I think she's dragging this on for too long. AITA?
Here's what top commenters had to say about this one:
DELILAHBELLE2605 said:
ESH. She sucks for trying to dictate your diet. You suck for not just telling her no and sneaking around like some teenager.
LabAdministrative530 said:
Why didn’t you just tell her you can’t do it anymore, and she should support your choice just like you support hers. As long as you’re not taunting her eating meat in front of her or being rude/disrespectful about her choice, you guys should eat whatever you want.
SolarAU said:
Bro just be honest with your wife. Your diet, your choice but hiding it from her is a no no.
Leahthevagabond said:
NTA for not wanting to do the diet but YTA for lying to your wife. You need to put your foot down, not just for you but for your son. A lot of people who go vegetarian don’t do enough research into how to get the proper nutritional value and that could have severe side effects for your growing child. He needs a full and balanced diet. If she wants to be vegetarian, that’s fine, but she can’t enforce that on the whole family.
smash8890 said:
YTA for sneaking around about it. Next time just be a grown up and tell your wife that you gave the diet a try to support her but it’s really not for you so you will no longer be following it.
KangarooJohnny said:
ESH your wife for dragging this out so long, it’s a lie, but hardly one that warrants weeks of drama. you for being a dishonest coward. Why break your wife’s trust over something so frivolous.
You’re a grown man, you gave the vegetarian diet a go. If it wasn’t working for you, you should have simply stepped up and said so and declared your going to resume eating meat. If she’d made an issue of it then she’d have been the AH. I also hope you’ve not allowed her diet choice to be imposed on your 5yo son!
ProfessionalLaw4081 said:
YTA for carrying on like you were following her vegetarianism while lying to her. You could have just told her it wasn’t for you, but you support her choices. Idk, I won’t even kiss someone after they eat meat, but I still date me. I would be mad about the lie. If she’s mad about you not being a vegetarian, that’s another issue.