[Athena E.]

AIBU 19.08.2024​

AIBU, which stands for 'Am I Being Unreasonable', is the perfect platform for sharing your thoughts and opinions! So, for today's AIBU discussion, we have this story from Reddit/dadsburgersthrway:

Am I unreasonable for telling my father he's no longer allowed to cook for my kids?​

'My (30F) father (60s) shops like a doomsday prepper. Whenever he gets groceries, he buys enough to feed a family of 5. He's also the type to buy food he doesn't plan on eating anytime soon, "just in case" he craves it. This has always been a problem. When I was younger, my sister and I spent more time at our mum's place, and weren't there often enough to eat much. Nowadays, he lives alone, so even less of what he buys is eaten.'

'The result has always been the same: a lot of the food he buys ends up either spoiled or sitting in a freezer until the end of time. We've never eaten anything that's rotten or mouldy, but my dad has always refused to listen when I tell him this is bad for his health.'

'My family went to his place for dinner about a week ago. I arrived earlier to help my father out, as he planned on making burgers. My husband would come later with our kids (5M and 2F). I had offered to buy some burgers when we decided on them, but my father had said he had some at his place. I didn't think about what that could mean until I saw him pull a box of burgers and some cheese from the very bottom of the freezer.'

'As both had clearly been there a while, I checked the expiration dates. The cheese expired in February (I know dairy products can last longer frozen, but still). The burgers expired in March 2021. I asked my father if he actually planned on cooking that food. He said yes, as both were frozen and "still fine" to eat.'

'I told him I didn't care how edible he thought the food was, the meat was older than my daughter. We could think about something else to make or I could have my husband pick up some burgers on his way to my dad's place, but I didn't want my kids eating that. '

'My father got offended. He started going on about how the food was safe and how a dozen nutritionists (AKA some guys his girlfriend found on TikTok) had said so. He said he couldn't believe I didn't trust him.'

'He continued talking about how dramatic I was being for a while. I was very upset at the way he responded. Finally, I said: "My kids aren't eating that, and I don't want you cooking for them again. Either (husband's name) buys the burgers or we're not staying for dinner."'

'My husband ended up buying the burgers. We ate them peacefully and no one fought in front of the kids.'

'The next day, my father told me he was upset by what I'd said. He said he felt offended that I'd "accuse him of putting his grandchildren in danger" like that. I told him that wasn't my intention, I just didn't want to feed my kids 3 year old meat, and he refused to listen to me. My dad's still insisting I'm being dramatic. My husband is completely on my side, but thinks forbidding my father from cooking for our children might have been a little too much. Am I being unreasonable?'

 

[Southmelbswans]

In have certainly eaten 3yo meat in its original packaging from the freezer and had no ill effects!!!

 

[Rob44]

EXPIRY dates basically tell one when some regulation somewhere ensures that the food will be thrown out by the supermarket. Frozen hamburgers neither breath nor die, despite the alleged note on the sticker that says they carry out expiration at a certain date.

As for deep-frozen tucker. There are stories that some explorers and/or scientists on the Arctic tundra of deepest darkest Siberia ate deep-frozen meat, after cooking it, from a woolly mammoth that had died and been deep-frozen some umpteen thousand years ago. The oldest deep-frozen stuff I have eaten was deep frozen in 1902-03, although that was a Cadbury's chocolate bar; I should have kept it to sell at an auction. However if your dad had unfrozen and refrozen those hamburgers several times they might have become a wee bit less healthy than he had expected.

 

[Rob44]

EXPIRY dates basically tell one when some regulation somewhere ensures that the food will be thrown out by the supermarket. Frozen hamburgers neither breath nor die, despite the alleged note on the sticker that says they carry out expiration at a certain date.

As for deep-frozen tucker. There are stories that some explorers and/or scientists on the Arctic tundra of deepest darkest Siberia ate deep-frozen meat, after cooking it, from a woolly mammoth that had died and been deep-frozen some umpteen thousand years ago. The oldest deep-frozen stuff I have eaten was deep frozen in 1902-03, although that was a Cadbury's chocolate bar; I should have kept it to sell at an auction. However if your dad had unfrozen and refrozen those hamburgers several times they might have become a wee bit less healthy than he had expected.

PS Cheese. My experience is that plastic-wrapped cheddar cheese is best left in a hot dark room for a couple of months after which one extracts the ugly fatty mouldy mess that greets the nose on opening the plastic wrapper and cuts off the unsightly outer coating of horrible stuff to reveal a piquant crumbly improvement of cheese underneath. Probably not recommended by cheese-makers, but generally cheeses improve with age. Just as do we older blokes.

 

[shaz1961]

Hi, Im a bit funny with expired food, even in freezer. Dont blame you.
Telling your dad never to cook again, um a little harsh.

 

[Jest]

good on you. why does anyone have to change their principles for someones elses. OPINIONS are OPINIONS.

 

[Luckyus]

Once had carcasses come stamped, not fit for human consummations

 

[MG943]

Freezing does not stop bacterial activity, it only slows it down. You were right to place your children's safety above your foolish father's feelings.