Is it unreasonable to be frustrated by a guest who says they eat anything when they actually don’t?

[funinthesun22]

My MIL is staying with us over the bank holiday. When I asked in advance what she’d like to eat, she said she eats anything and was happy to have whatever we usually have.

Friday dinner was a vegetable and chickpea but apparently she hates chickpeas and dried fruit in savoury food. Saturday breakfast (yogurt, granola, fruit) didn’t go down well either. I took her to M&S so she could pick things she’d enjoy, but she kept insisting she was fine and didn’t add anything to the basket until I said we’d planned tacos for dinner she said she didn’t know what that was and didn’t sound keen, so we bought an alternative dinner for her.

At lunch I made a salad with homemade dressing. She didn’t like the sound of the dressing and asked for salad cream which we didn’t have. I offered vinaigrette, olive oil, or mayo as alternatives but she turned them all down and had a plain salad. She also asked for a few additions we didn’t have, despite us having been in M&S two hours earlier offering to buy food. We’ve got a BBQ planned today and I’m hopeful now that I know more of her dislikes but still not entirely sure.

AIBU to find this frustrating? I genuinely don’t mind catering to a picky eater. I just need to know what she actually likes. But every time I ask, I get “I’ll eat whatever you’re having” when that’s clearly not the case.

Wholegrains found in some cereals like weetabix are good for bowel health

www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/diet-and-cancer/wholegrains-fibre-and-cancer-risk

Spicy, unfamiliar and eaten with hands.

I have an intolerance to some nuts and don’t like dried fruit so would struggle if I was offered granola for breakfast. My breakfast cereal of choice would be something like shredded wheat or weetabix

But if you were asked what you’d want to eat, @sittingonabeach, presumably you’d tell the m that you couldn’t eat nuts and didn’t like dried fruit, and would prefer weetabix, so they’d know to have some in the house. You wouldnt say “Oh I eat anything” and then refuse cereal containing nuts and dried fruit.

Granola isn't healthy.
Yogurt is obviously, but it's a normal food that most people eat and not a 'health food'.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius I probably would expect there to be more on offer than just granola

Cereal is a very normal thing to have for breakfast. It is quick and easy and doesn't have to be sugary. My DH has cereal for breakfast every morning and I don't know anyone, personally, that would turn their nose up at it. It is an ordinary thing to have for breakfast even for adults.

My point was that you would tell your hosts about your dietary requirements ahead of time, @sittingonabeach, rather than saying you eat anything and then being surprised that they hadn’t catered for your needs.

Absolutely My granola is full of chocolate. I wouldn't put it in a "healthy category" any day of the week but sometimes I fancy a "treat" breakfast 😂. It goes well with yogurt.

I think she means she eats anything from her era!

Mind you, I’ll often nearly say I eat anything and forget the fact I don’t eat meat 😂😂

I eat for dinner sometimes (with milk).

Fussy eaters who pretend their fussiness is the only way to eat are tedious.

Food is food. If you want a very specific and limited diet, fine, just own it and be upfront about it. And be polite about it!

Many people, myself included, would groan inside at the idea of a roast, but would eat it without making a scene. MIL is just trying to make herself interesting and special.

Seriously? Now people are suggesting that many people don’t like roast dinners? What utter bollocks! I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a roast most Sundays! Are you actually aware how busy restaurants are on a Sunday and that many exclusively serve roasts! How do you think the likes of Toby Carvery stay in business? Next someone will be on to say that most people don’t like burgers or fried chicken. Food snobbery at its finest on this thread!
I sometimes think people on mumsnet live on a different planet! 😂

Of course they do. It doesn’t have to be unhealthy
weetabix, all bran with some fruit and milk is a perfectly normal breakfast

you don't know anyone who doesn't have a roast most Sundays?
You must live in a very small world. Or a very small country maybe?😂

Next someone will be on to say that most people don’t like burgers or fried chicken. people, or people over the age of 12?

The point was that MIL was offered perfectly normal food, not some very exotic and unusual item. Roasts are neither exotic nor unusual, but really not something many people would look forward to.

Do you live in the 1950s? Where is this place where everyone has Sunday roasts every week, it's certainly not where I or anybody my family live

I'm not particularly a fan of burgers or fried chicken although I would eat them, have a missed a memo that it's compulsory?

Ha! Exactly. We probably have a roast maybe 4 times a year and 2 of those will be Christmas day and Easter Sunday. Theyre ok I guess just bit something we eat very often. And I would absolutely not EVER eat fried chicken. Yuck yuck yuck. Greasy food gives me a dodgy belly. If I was asked if I eat anything id probably say - most things. What were you thinking? I really wouldnt be assuming someone would serve fried chicken thiugh tbh. That would be really weird.

And i wouldnt consider myself any more of a food snob than someone who thinks its necessary to have e a roast every Sunday!

Before you even start on individual tastes, there are approximately 9 million vegans and vegetarians in the UK. I think that counts as 'many'. Then there are people from all sorts of non-UK family backgrounds without the Sunday Roast tradition. Plus the people who similarly aren't keen on lumps of plain roast meat. And the ones who don't mind it from time to time but can't be arsed to cook one every week.

Exactly! You can’t reason with some of the people on here! 😂 What you described is my breakfast most weekdays. That’s definitely more common that bloody granola and Greek yoghurt! 🙄

Most sundays ? Are you living in the 1950's ? That is the last time " most people" ate like that. As others have said reminiscent of my grandparents born in the 1910s.

Indeed my grandparents always had a roast on Sundays, born 1910's
My mother has always done a sunday roast, born 1930's
I have always done a Sunday roast, b 1960
DS and DIL do a Sunday roast or a fancy meal, b 1990s.

Please don't generalise for everyone.

What absolute bollocks! 😂
I have actually lived in 3 countries in the U.K.! 😂 The only place roasts were slightly less common on a Sunday was in Scotland.

So the under 12s are keeping companies like McDonalds and KFC in business? Probably the smallest age group in the population of the U.K.? Yeah of course they are? 😂 They all must be driving their parents cars there on a Friday evening at the McDonalds near me too!

Roasts aren’t something people would look forward to? Try telling that to the boss of the Toby Carvery and all the restaurants who base Sunday menus almost exclusively around roasts! A colleague of mine mentioned that she didn’t have a booking for a roast a few weeks ago and ended up going to 5 different restaurants and gave up after not being able to get a table. I mean she must be wrong because nobody looks forward to a roast! 🙄😂
Once again Mumsnet proves that it’s far removed from reality. Everyone lives in a big house, earns £200K a year, weighs under 9 stone, lives on salad and has tall beautiful gifted children who are well above average. Despite health, economic and educational statistics saying otherwise. Amazing what fake lives people can portray on an anonymous forum eh? 😂

Utter bollocks! 😂😂

You’ve tried, just give her what you have.