Man Sparks Outrage After 'Berating' Wife for Bringing Him a Home-Cooked Meal at Work

Starting a new job is always stressful. But for one Redditor, the experience appears to have been especially challenging, prompting intense conflict between him and his wife about, of all things, lunch.

In a Monday night post in Reddit's "Am I the A**hole?" (AITA) forum, the 33-year-old man, known only by the username u/ThrowraWork46874, wondered: "AITA for telling my wife she embarrassed me by bringing a meal to my work?" The thread has since reached viral levels of engagement, racking up nearly 13,000 votes and over 7,500 comments.

The Redditor explained that he recently started a new job at "a large company" in the area where he and his wife moved "months ago." His wife, to celebrate his new job, "talked about preparing a surprise" for him—and at first, the Redditor was excited to find out what his wife had in store.

That is, until the surprise was revealed. According to u/ThrowraWork46874, his wife showed up at his workplace two days ago "with a meal she said she prepared specifically for [him] since it's [his] favorite."

"Apparently this was her surprise," he added. "I was [a] little upset she brought it to my workplace."

He went on to explain his adverse reaction to the surprise: according to him, his coworkers "are vicious and brutally honest and sarcastic." When his wife brought the lunch, they "got involved and kept teasing [him] about the meal."

One of them even "joked about how 'mommy' is so supportive by bringing food to [his] workplace." Said the Redditor: "​​I felt like s**t as he and other coworkers kept laughing at me."

The teasing continued the following day. The same coworker "kept making jokes ... saying s**t like 'Is mommy going to bring lunch today as well?' And, 'When is mommy coming to change your diaper?'"

When the Redditor got home from work that day, things between him and his wife escalated. "I felt so awful...and just blew up at my wife," he wrote, adding that he "told her she flatout f**king embarrassed [him]" and "just torpedoed any goddamned prestige and respect [he] had" among his peers.

"She argued that she was just trying to do something nice for me and didn't care about what people might say," he explained. She reportedly added that his "constant berating" made him "a selfish jerk who only cares about what others think."

From there, the fight only seemed to get worse. "The argument escalated after I suggested that she could've waited til I got home to surprise me with this goddamned meal instead of showing up while I was working which made me seem unprofessional...She said at this point I clearly find it easier to blame her than stand up for myself against those childish bullies."

She reportedly told him that he "should be grateful she cared enough to bring [him] a home cooked meal" in the first place, while he "told her to stop blaming [him] for something she caused."

"She told me to man up and either report them or quit," said the Redditor. "I had to walk out [because] I couldn't take anymore of this and felt like she wasn't listening to how her behavior caused me an issue at work."

Newsweek reached out to user u/ThrowraWork46874 for comment.

The saga ignited a vocal response from the Reddit community. And unfortunately for the man, most appeared united in their support of his wife.

"Your wife is an absolute sweetheart. Your colleagues are bullying you, and bullying your wife in return isn't going to fix anything," wrote u/BookkeeperHefty2143 in a top-rated comment.

"YTA for siding with coworkers over your wife who you married, live with and presumably love," echoed u/APX919. "Those coworkers are immature and I cannot for the life of me fathom why their opinion of you matters more than that of your spouse."

While it's true that the coworkers' teasing was uncalled for, many suspect that it was actually the man's reaction to his wife's "surprise" that fueled their jokes. "The only reason his coworkers are teasing him this hard is cause he is obviously butthurt about it," commented u/CommonScold.

"His coworkers razed him about it because it was an obvious sore spot," added u/thistleandpeony.

Many more simply pointed out that one's spouse bringing them a home-cooked meal is not an embarrassing act in the first place—in fact, it's a relatively common, albeit traditional, practice. "I would be ecstatic to receive a homemade meal at work," wrote u/celestier. Noted u/Laurifish: "It seems weird to me that a spouse bringing their partner lunch would be an issue anywhere."

The man, meanwhile, took to his original post to clarify a few points. "I in no way don't appreciate my wife's effort," he wrote. "The only problem I have is that she didn't tell me beforehand...I agree that the main problem I have is my coworkers but I lashed out because I felt overwhelmed with their hurtful remarks that offended my wife as well."