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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think eyeing up people's food is beyond rude?

113 replies

ButteredRadishes · 23/06/2025 17:26

My uncle will hoover his lunch and then stare at your plate like a hawk, and say stuff like "are you going to eat that roast potato?" Or he'll be looking at your packet of crisps and say "they look nice....". All the time eyeballs on the packet.

He actually made his 6 year old son cry at lunch on Sunday, we were out for a roast,and nephew was taking his toe , went to the loo,and whilst he was gone took his Yorkshire pudding (yes, I questioned it before he ate it and uncles response was "well, he's taking too long" and then he ate it. Nephew came back and was understandably upset.

it's fucking rude. Yes?

OP posts:
Daffodilsarefading · 24/06/2025 06:52

I wouldn’t want to eat in his company again. Can you eat before and just meet for drinks?
I would also tell him and his family why.

allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld · 24/06/2025 06:46

@ButteredRadishes sorry OP you have been landed with a selfish greedy slob of a bully for a nephew! he has not even been taught table manners!!

ButteredRadishes · 24/06/2025 06:33

ScottBakula · 23/06/2025 23:27

So he ignored you and the child's mother and had 2 extra helping of yorkie, christ he is even worse that I first thought @

No, auntie gave her son the Yorkshire

OP posts:
bipbopdo · 24/06/2025 01:47

Going against the grain a bit here… Does your uncle have an eating disorder? He certainly has an unhealthy relationship with food. It’s really unusual for adult to behave like this and often there’s some underlying issue that needs to be addressed. Look up ‘food noise’.

Kurokurosuke · 24/06/2025 01:45

ButteredRadishes · 23/06/2025 21:16

She did say something,but it was ignored. She gave him her Yorkshire.

Why are all the women being blamed for this man's shitty behaviour?

caringcarer · 24/06/2025 01:44

Stealing food off his own child's plate is disgusting. I'd have made a comment like 'stop stealing your son's food, you had your own food'. If he tried to take a YP off of my plate I'd have stabbed my fork into his hand. He sounds like a greedy pig. He should cook more food if he wants to eat so much not steal from others plates.

IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta · 24/06/2025 01:37

MummBRaaarrrTheEverLeaking · 24/06/2025 01:12

Next time go to the bar and order another roast, then when they bring the extra plate out you can put it in front of him and declare in a big loud voice (so all the other diners can hear) "that's for you greedy guts, a whole extra dinner so you don't steal food off your own child's plate"

If that doesn't shame him I don't know what will!! Yes I know it means paying for another dinner but anything has to be worth a try at this point.

I'm not even convinced that it's about still being hungry in a lot of cases like this; I reckon it's just that they're so convinced that the world revolves around them and that they are the only one who matters, they like to cement their believed superiority by taking whatever they can from other people who can't or won't fight back.

A little bit like the food equivalent of Putin: if you were already in charge of a country that occupied 11% of the entire world's land mass but with only 2% of the world's people, would the first instinct of a sane, decent person be to believe earnestly that you must invade and take somebody else's land as well, because you obviously don't already have enough of your own?

(I know that is a gross oversimplification of the situation, but...)

MummBRaaarrrTheEverLeaking · 24/06/2025 01:12

Next time go to the bar and order another roast, then when they bring the extra plate out you can put it in front of him and declare in a big loud voice (so all the other diners can hear) "that's for you greedy guts, a whole extra dinner so you don't steal food off your own child's plate"

If that doesn't shame him I don't know what will!! Yes I know it means paying for another dinner but anything has to be worth a try at this point.

Devianinc · 24/06/2025 01:11

ButteredRadishes · 23/06/2025 21:16

She did say something,but it was ignored. She gave him her Yorkshire.

Good mommy

Pickled21 · 24/06/2025 01:04

My aunt did this once. I was 13 and jabbed her with a fork. My mum told me off but my dad said I should have done it twice. She never did it again but told my dh the story. I said I'd do it again and she should have kept her hands to herself.

He's a greedy git and should be called out on it every single time.

healthybychristmas · 24/06/2025 00:59

I couldn't eat a meal with someone like that. I'd be on pins watching him watching my food. I just wouldn't enjoy it at home and would refuse to eat anywhere near him.

SoMauveMonty · 24/06/2025 00:29

outerspacepotato · 23/06/2025 18:34

Fork stabbing is a thing.

Your uncle is a nasty greedy fuckwit stealing a kid's dessert. I wouldn't sit by for that.

Yep, if anyone deserves a fork in the back of the hand it's him

ScottBakula · 23/06/2025 23:27

ButteredRadishes · 23/06/2025 21:16

She did say something,but it was ignored. She gave him her Yorkshire.

So he ignored you and the child's mother and had 2 extra helping of yorkie, christ he is even worse that I first thought @

SemperIdem · 23/06/2025 21:23

That isn’t normal behaviour at all!

EasternStandard · 23/06/2025 21:21

My 7 year old would be upset too. The whole taking people’s food is off.

ButteredRadishes · 23/06/2025 21:16

Gymnopedie · 23/06/2025 21:10

Where was the boy's mother in this? Why didn't she stop him?

She did say something,but it was ignored. She gave him her Yorkshire.

OP posts:
ButteredRadishes · 23/06/2025 21:14

DappledThings · 23/06/2025 20:41

Not the point of the thread but if he's your uncle and it was his son then the child is your cousin not your nephew.

Quite right. But he's 6 and I'm 45, and my uncle is 42. I see him as my nephew, he calls me aunty radish. Sorry.

OP posts:
Gymnopedie · 23/06/2025 21:10

Where was the boy's mother in this? Why didn't she stop him?

chocolatelover91 · 23/06/2025 21:10

This would do my fucking head in! I can't stand people like that!

DeSoleil · 23/06/2025 21:10

Thats horrible.

Was the boys mother there?

Gluttony is repulsive but to steal food from a child is just plain nasty.

I would refuse to ever eat food with him again and refer to him as Uncle Creosote.

EasternStandard · 23/06/2025 20:55

Yeh that’s horrible

DappledThings · 23/06/2025 20:41

Not the point of the thread but if he's your uncle and it was his son then the child is your cousin not your nephew.

AffIt · 23/06/2025 20:37

If somebody ate my Yorkie while I was in the loo they'd be leaving the restaurant with a fork in the back of their hand.

Clafoutie · 23/06/2025 20:31

ButteredRadishes · 23/06/2025 17:26

My uncle will hoover his lunch and then stare at your plate like a hawk, and say stuff like "are you going to eat that roast potato?" Or he'll be looking at your packet of crisps and say "they look nice....". All the time eyeballs on the packet.

He actually made his 6 year old son cry at lunch on Sunday, we were out for a roast,and nephew was taking his toe , went to the loo,and whilst he was gone took his Yorkshire pudding (yes, I questioned it before he ate it and uncles response was "well, he's taking too long" and then he ate it. Nephew came back and was understandably upset.

it's fucking rude. Yes?

Yes. Awful.

ButteredRadishes · 23/06/2025 19:57

JadedCat · 23/06/2025 18:40

Exactly this! He's a greedy obnoxious nitwit and would have deserved a good fork stabbing in the back of the hand. Why on earth did you let him steal a child's food? Everyone knows that a good Yorkshire is the best part of a roast dinner.

I didn't "let him" I did object and he didn't give a shit and ate it.

OP posts: