Pescatarian Left Hungry and Hurt at Boyfriend’s Family Dinner When ‘No One Noticed I Had Nothing to Eat’

A young woman was left feeling hungry and emotionally drained after an impromptu dinner at her boyfriend’s father’s house left her with no food she could eat — and no one seemed to notice.

The 21-year-old shared her story on Reddit, explaining she’s been in a relationship with her 22-year-old boyfriend for nearly two years and has been a pescatarian for more than a year. Despite her dietary preference being well known to his family, no accommodations were made for her during a family dinner gathering — a situation that left her questioning whether she was right to feel hurt.

It started as a birthday celebration for her boyfriend’s grandmother, where she managed fine with fruit and veggie sides. However, plans unexpectedly changed after they were invited to swim at her boyfriend’s dad’s house. The couple canceled dinner plans with her grandparents — where tacos were waiting — and headed to the pool instead.

Once there, things quickly unraveled. She was soaked from swimming, wearing her boyfriend’s oversized clothes, on her period, and hadn’t had a proper meal all day. Then came dinner: burgers and a frozen combination pizza — neither of which she could eat.

“I just assumed he’d make a cheese pizza,” she wrote. “Nope.”

No one asked what she wanted, and when she declined a burger earlier, no one followed up. “When I came back [from the bathroom], everyone else had food, and I was just sitting there with nothing,” she recalled.

Her boyfriend handed her a tiny cup of waffle fries — “like six fries” — but when she declined, he ate them himself.

She confronted him, asking, “Were you just expecting me to sit here and watch everyone else eat in silence?” His response — suggesting they’d just leave after he finished eating — left her even more upset. “We had plans that involved both of us eating. I would never do that to him at my house,” she noted.

The woman described tearing up in the bathroom before rejoining the group and continuing the evening with an empty stomach and a growing sense of exclusion. She emphasized that her own family would never let a guest go unfed.

Later, she added clarification: the pizza was frozen and nearly finished cooking by the time she realized it wasn’t vegetarian. “There really wasn’t much he could do about it in that moment,” she admitted, but still felt he should have communicated better.

In hindsight, she admitted she could’ve brought something or spoken up more — but she didn’t expect to be at his dad’s house, let alone needing to fend for herself. “I’m not a very outgoing person,” she wrote. “I really didn’t know what to say.”

Despite not blaming his family — “It’s not their job to accommodate me,” she said — she reflected that, as a host herself, she’d never let someone feel that overlooked.

Reddit users had mixed but supportive responses. Some emphasized self-reliance: “Eat beforehand, bring snacks, stop at Taco Bell,” one advised. Others called out her boyfriend for failing to think ahead. “He was in charge of the pizza,” one person noted. “How hard would it have been to make a cheese one too?”

Though the couple has since talked things through, she still sees the experience as an important lesson: “Next time, I’ll be more prepared. Hopefully no one else has to sit through a night like that — because it was not fun.”