‘My husband took our kids for dinner without me - I already made food at home’

“The kids were hungry when I picked them up, and I knew they’d like to go to dinner instead of going home,” Brian defended his actions. 

It was late in the afternoon when Brian* picked up his two children from daycare.

The kids, aged three and five, were happy to see their dad after a day at the childcare centre - but they were also starving. 

His wife, Jess*, was on her way to drop their eldest child to a practice game, so the father decided to take matters into his own hands. 

Little did he know his attempt at helping the kids would backfire spectacularly.

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Brian was happy to swing by a restaurant to feed his kids, despite knowing his wife had already made dinner. Picture: iStock

“It was too late to change plans, so we stayed and ate”

Brian placed the kids inside the car and started the drive home. 

On Reddit, he explained that the 3yo and 5yo were “hungry when I picked them up, and I knew they’d like to go to dinner instead of going home”. 

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By the time he and the kids arrived at the restaurant, Brian realised he’d messed up. 

“I saw a text from my wife that she had made them plates before she left the house,” he confessed. Rather than getting the food to go and returning home, Brian decided it would be better to just stay at the restaurant with the kids. 

“It was too late to change plans, so we stayed and ate,” he said.

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To make matters worse, he disregarded the dinner his wife painstakingly made at home. “The dinner she had made was … pretty basic, but it was dinner nonetheless,” he wrote. 

Brian didn’t think much of it when he returned home with the children, but the second his wife walked through the front door, things went awry. 

“When my wife got back home, I told her I saw her text just a few minutes too late, and we ate out,” he said. 

Jess was furious at her husband, accusing him of “wasting her time”. In her eyes, he had failed to think about the effort she put into dinner for the whole family, disregarding her actions entirely. 

While he tried to defend his actions, the kids were hungry, and he didn’t have much choice. Jess wasn’t buying any of it. 

“I told her I didn’t intend to waste her time, but that didn’t matter,” he said. “What I did was ‘rude’.” 

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“Sounds like HE wanted a treat and used kiddos as an excuse”

Online, the majority of people failed to sympathise with Brian, as he should have known that dinner was already on the table - literally. 

“I don't believe for one minute the wife didn't communicate beforehand, personally,” a comment read. “Sounds like HE wanted a treat and used kiddos as an excuse.”

“My guess is there was something at the restaurant [Brian] had a hankering for, and it had nothing to do with the kids wanting to go out for dinner,” another added. 

Some wondered why Brian didn’t consider whether his wife or eldest child would also be hungry after their extracurricular activities; instead, he only thought of himself and his two youngest kids. 

“‘What are we doing for dinner’ is a discussion pretty much every family has, pretty much every day, especially once kids start doing after-school activities,” a person wrote. “It feels really off that what your wife and 12 yo were doing for dinner never came into this whole thing.”

One person wondered: “What exactly prevented [Brian] from shooting his wife a text that he and the littles were getting dinner out that night, knowing she expected to have to make them dinner at home?”

“Just admit that you wanted to go out to dinner. Everyone wants that sometimes. Just be honest and make sure the food at home gets eaten at the next meal so it doesn’t go to waste,” a third added.

“You should have texted wife and asked if you could bring anything home for her and 12yo, though!”

*Names have been changed

Originally published as ‘My husband took our kids for dinner without me - I already made food at home’