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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to feel like throwing up whenever I have to eat other people's home cooked food

240 replies

gettngbetter · 19/08/2013 13:32

A lady in work baked a cake the other day and brought it in to share around. I accepted a slice as not to seem rude and said I'd have it later with my lunch as I'd just eaten. Then when no one was looking I wrapped it in a napkin and threw it in the bin.

I don't know why exactly but eating something that someone baked at home makes me feel ill. How do I know how hygienic they are? I'm not overly obsessed with hygiene or germs but i dont like the thought of someone I dont know very well touching the food with their hands.

If I'm in a restaurant I have no problem eating anything - even though if I think about it rationally the chef there could be very unhygienic! I've read horror stories about restaurants having to be shut down because they were endangering people's health.

Sometimes I'm in a situation where I feel obliged to accept and eat something - and there's no way of disposing of it - I try to gulp it down as quickly as possible.

I admit it's a bit weird to feel like this - Does anyone have the same issues. Or does anyone else have similar weird phobias? My friend is totally freaked out by cotton wool (I find that weird!)

OP posts:
worsestershiresauce · 19/08/2013 19:45

My BIL is an extreme version of you. When he comes to visit I leave an unopened packet of cream crackers on the dinner table. It is the only thing he will eat.

It's hard not to be offended. It's a bit like someone telling you your house is filthy Sad

farrowandbawl · 19/08/2013 19:55

It was only a small amount but that's still way too much.

Poppyhat · 19/08/2013 21:33

Ilovemulberry ... I just skipped over four pages because I had to tell you I am exactly the same ! Fresh farm eggs? No thank you . And veg out of a garden ,ugh .and I'm from the country , you would think I should know better :-) love my eggs and veg ,but from a shop please.( I know how odd this makes me,but that's just the way it is)

5Foot5 · 19/08/2013 22:14

Ilovemulberry ... I just skipped over four pages because I had to tell you I am exactly the same ! Fresh farm eggs? No thank you . And veg out of a garden ,ugh .and I'm from the country , you would think I should know better :-) love my eggs and veg ,but from a shop please.( I know how odd this makes me,but that's just the way it is)

But, but. Where do you think the eggs and veg come from before they get in to the shop?

pongping · 19/08/2013 23:32

The more I've had to do with the cooking process, the harder I find things to eat - does anyone get that?

And don't get me started on home grown or foraged foods - I find them really hard to eat. Which is totally ridiculous and irrational. I'd love to know the basis for this aversion; and I'd love to get over it. I couldn't eat any of the strawberries we grew in the garden this year, for example!

pongping · 19/08/2013 23:33

The more I've had to do with the cooking process, the harder I find things to eat - does anyone get that?

And don't get me started on home grown or foraged foods - I find them really hard to eat. Which is totally ridiculous and irrational. I'd love to know the basis for this aversion, and I'd love to get over it. I couldn't eat any of the strawberries we grew in the garden this year, for example!

pongping · 19/08/2013 23:33

Whoops Blush

Poppyhat · 19/08/2013 23:34

Glad it's not just me :-)

Silverfoxballs · 19/08/2013 23:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Monty27 · 19/08/2013 23:38

YANBU

I wouldn't eat anything that was grown in the ground until I was 19 Grin. (Germs, worms, creatures etc). I have grown up a bit since then.

I empathise with anyone who has a problem with eating something that that they don't know has been hygiencally prepared.

:)

Coconutty · 19/08/2013 23:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Morloth · 19/08/2013 23:51

I wouldn't mind if someone simply declined.

However it is very rude and wasteful to take a piece and bin it.

I could have eaten that!

Personally, I will eat pretty much anything and am one of those 'robust good health' people, who wipe the dirt off and munch on. If it passes the sniff test then I am eating it.

What people eat/don't eat is none of my business IMO, don't care.

But don't throw away perfectly good food that somebody else could have enjoyed.

AaDB · 20/08/2013 00:01

Homemade food brought into the office gives me the heebie geebies. If I gave serious thought to prepared sandwiches, airline, anything; I'd have to go back to basics and mill my own for to make bread.

I hate cotton wool.

Ipsumlorem · 20/08/2013 00:04

Yabu probably. Having said that I have a real thing (irrationally) about cleaning other peoples dishes when they are done eating. It's the thought of their saliva being all over any leftover food shivers Blush

Monty27 · 20/08/2013 00:05

Can't remember who posted about the cotton wool, but it just made me go ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww :(

Ipsumlorem · 20/08/2013 00:05

that was meant to be . Stupid phone!

gremlindolphin · 20/08/2013 00:07

I'm with you on the wood thing although wet is better than try - beach spades, wooden spoons, toilet rolls - all aaaargh!!

Monty27 · 20/08/2013 00:16

Wet wooden handled knife while peeling potatoes Shock Nooooo!

HappyYoni · 20/08/2013 00:29

The worst thing ever is rubbing carpet. Like if something spills and you have to rub stuff on it. Worst.thing.ever.

costumething · 20/08/2013 00:35

I am the opposite. I will happily eat home cooked food & stuff thats been handled by people I know, but get anxious about eating out - which is very inconvenient. I can eat out but I don't enjoy it and it does make life difficult socially as most nights out seem to involve meals.
I blame reading 'Down and out in Paris and London' at an impressionable age. Funnily enough the one place I am happy to eat at is MacDonald's, as the food cooking is on display and whatever happens to it before hand once its been fried in hot fat, that's as good as Dettol as far as disinfectant is concerned!

WhatAFunnyPotato · 20/08/2013 03:28

My word, and I thought I was the only one with this weird phobia...thanks OP! Mine is so much better these days and I can and do eat at friends' houses etc. but I do baulk at the idea of cakes brought into work and other people's food in Tupperware. (Tupperware! faints ) I happily accept I'm totally barking and completely hide this so as not to appear rude.

I think it started when, aged 7, my parents were house hunting and viewed a home which reeked of dog. The owner gave me a cup of juice and a biscuit, and the juice had dog hair in it and I'd seen the dog slobbering over the biscuits before she handed me one. To this day I find it nearly impossible to eat in houses where there's a dog and I need to scrub myself if I have to go near any hound.

I also hate other people's bed sheets and worn clothes. My worst nightmare is being a guest in someone's home where they haven't washed the sheets after the previous guests. And if they have a dog too, well....I'd run screaming.

I am stark raving bonkers, obviously Grin.

Chottie · 20/08/2013 03:43

I find it difficult to eat in dog owner's houses too. The dog is 'one of the family' and shares everything. I think it stems from staying with a French family when I was about 8. The mother cooked a meat casserole in a dish and served the family. Then she put the dish on the floor and the dog ate the rest. p.s. it was horse meat too.

When you have eaten at someone's house and found hair (human or animal) in your food, or sat on a chair with sticky dog saliva arms it is really, really difficult not to go when faced with their food.

NadiaWadia · 20/08/2013 04:24

Poppyhat - you do realise that all vegetables come out of the earth, don't you, so what difference does it make whether that earth is in someone's private garden or not?

Similarly, all eggs come from chickens bottoms, to be blunt.

Sorry, but you are being a bit illogical, aren't you?

Pitmountainpony · 20/08/2013 04:52

I am like this with home made sperm.

Pitmountainpony · 20/08/2013 04:55

Sorry i mean home made jams, all that boiling dipping fingers in to check acidity.....