I wonder if the mushroom maniacs are really, consciously trying to poison their daughter in law as Polly assumes in her answer, or if it isn’t a case of criminally irresponsible ignorance.
Bear with me here, I am not trying to exculpate those assholes in any way, but I have heard too many cases of people who just don’t believe that allergies are real. Yes, as you hear, they are convinced that they are just a (probably liberal-concocted) urban legend used to justify being a picky eater. And these people often react by deliberately trying to force that person to consume that food, just as they would discipline a child of theirs that doesn’t want to eat her greens. I have heard cases of restaurant staff who when informed of allergies went out of their way to make sure that there was a larger portion of that ingredient in the food, and if possible concealed so its presence wouldn’t be apparent, and when caught claimed that they were just trying to help the picky eater get over her problem.
The family-in-law in this story are behaving very much like these people: they feel intrinsically offended by this woman lying about her health to justify her picky eating (because EVERYBODY knows allergies are a lie) and since they cannot force her to eat like they would a child, they will make sure that she cannot eat anything until she grits her teeth and accepts to eat her mushrooms like a big girl.
It frankly makes more sense to me that they are just a very common kind of abusive, overbearing and ignorant people than that they are a clan of psychopatic poisoners.
Unfortunately, even if I’m right it doesn’t make it any better because it’s practically impossible to correct such misconceptions. No doctor letter would convince them of the truth. The only solution is to cut ties with them,
What makes me think that story is true is the buried ETA lede. “I don’t understand why this happened. It’s a complete mystery. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention…”
Again it seems to be the same syndrome I mentioned in my long post above. Some people just WON’T BELIEVE allergies can be lethal. If someone claims to have a food allergy, theyr feel it is their duty to punish that person by forcefeeding her the food she doesn’t wnat to eat.
I know what you’re talking about, but there’s active malice going on in this story, too. It’s a case of arseholes using an already crappy rationale (“food allergies aren’t real”) for inflicting deliberate harm on someone they just don’t like. It’s not just ignorance.
“Dear Aunt Agony; I was always skeptical of the letters here, and I never thought this would happen to me, but just last week…”
Besides these incidents. I really despise people that question and taunt over food issues. I developed a massive dairy intolerance and really don’t enjoy spending 4 hours in horrific pain so I avoid dairy. I’m kinda stunned when I get attitude over trying to make sure there isn’t dairy in things. There is an aggressive dickishness some people get over doubting diet restrictions.
I’m glad most people have empathy.
“I am a student at a small midwestern university…”
I’ve found Heather Havrilesky to be a trustworthy and ethical journalist, though, so I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
My spouse has celiac disease, which is much easier to navigate now that gluten-free is a “fad” diet. The downside is that restaurants will invariably put the gluten-free dish in front of ME. Because women are the ones that do diets, of course. Not men.
“And I was in the washroom. Suddenly I was stunned when I noticed that the toilet paper rolls were the wrong-way-round…”
Of course, but that would be the (unfortunately) garden-variety malice of tough-love and spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child, not the insane malice of a cabal of poisoners
“Oh. Well, have you tried…” x n, where n is too damned high.
Yeah I love mushrooms. So much I’ve got some shiitakes growing in the back yard.
And you’re not gonna see them popping up in more than one dish. I’m not gonna even cook them if you’ve got a serious allergy without some equally serious cross contamination control. And i’m not gonna heckle you for not liking them.
To be clear it sounds like the MiL really doesn’t like her. What’s described is an active attempt to do her harm, if only to leave her hungry while everyone else eats and make her go away (which she should, and quickly before they escalate further).
I mean, I have forgotten about my friend’s dairy allergy once or twice and made a dish he can’t eat. Dairy is a bit more difficult to avoid than mushrooms. Mushroom powder in the mashed potatoes? Come the fuck on.
I love mushrooms too and I’ve never considered putting them in fucking mashed potatoes.
The Ask Polly headline really undersells the story. Those people are in no way “careless” about the deadly food allergy. They care deeply and are doing their best to exploit it.
In any event, the moral of both of these stories is obvious: you’ve got to kill your in-laws before they can kill you.
Its actually delicious.
But that’s a dick move even if there’s some one who just doesn’t like mushrooms around. Unless you make another option, and running off some fucking rice is easy as shit.
That is some passive agressive selfish shit however you cut it, before allergies come into it.
This pie is dry!
I was disappointed that I couldn’t see the ‘expert’ relationship advice from the other Redditors. I was expecting him to be told that the problem was that she had the wrong kind of phone to begin with, or that he should have installed some tracking devices in her ‘girly stuff’ as a preemptive measure when she first moved in.
And unfortunately common, as some other posters confirmed.
See here for more examples https://cheezburger.com/5529861/11-people-with-serious-allergies-who-were-tricked-by-aholes-who-didnt-believe-them
Yep. It’s bullying however you look at it.
