Man Tries to Get Advice About His Estranged Mom but Everyone’s Too Focused on His Wife’s Chocolate, Maple Syrup Chili

In today’s episode of Am I The Asshole is the story of a man working to patch things up with his estranged mother, leading to him kicking her out of his house and wondering if he was wrong to do so. He told his mom to leave because she made fun of his wife’s cooking, something that’s a bit of a sore spot since this isn’t the first time she’s belittled his wife.

This is never an easy situation to be in, especially if you’re trying to fix a relationship that’s gone astray. You never want a parent to make your spouse feel bad, and I’m sure this guy’s feeling extra prickly since he and his mother haven’t talked for three years.

That being said, the chili his wife made was a bit… questionable.

Everyone’s talking about this chili and I can’t blame them

The story starts out fine in the beginning. Mother and son agreed to part ways three years ago because the mother was going through some personal stuff and acting out. Apparently, the mother didn’t get along with her son’s wife, either, and it sounds like the feeling was mutual on the wife’s end.

Still, mother and son decided to walk away from each other, and it’s been like that for three years. The two reconnected at a party and decided to try again – with the wife’s blessing.

Time apart can do wonders.

Eventually, the mother gets invited over to dinner, which is where everything goes wrong. She brings along someone she’s seeing (called Rob in the post) and the two decide to dig into the wife’s chili.

Rob gags.

Mom laughs.

To his credit, Rob doesn’t gag on purpose, it’s a genuine reaction to the food he just tasted.

The chili, we’re told, is very sweet. Now I’ve personally never heard of sweet chili, but I don’t doubt the fact that adding sweet ingredients to savory dishes can work. But from my understanding, you use those ingredients sparingly to bring out the flavors in the dish and not, um, make them the dominant force.

The chili in question is made with maple syrup, chocolate powder, cinnamon, and brown sugar. By the husband’s own admission, he himself only likes it as a sauce topping and not an entire bowl of chili, in which case… why are you even serving it as chili and calling it chili?

Chili implies eating an entire serving, my friend.

Needless to say, the chili has taken over the story to the point that no one is answering his question on whether or not he’s the asshole here.

Again, I don’t doubt the fact that you can put cocoa or brown sugar or something in savory dishes, but making something so sweet that you yourself admit to not being able to eat something you call chili like CHILI means that something’s off.

Also? There are refried beans and chili powder but you can’t taste it? Just… what?!

The murky chili covers up some mind-boggling family dynamics

Chili aside (I know, it’s hard to ignore it), digging deeper into the story led to some very bizarre reveals about the family. I know that there are times when folks don’t get along with their in-laws, but the stunts these people have pulled on each other lead me to believe that the separation should’ve probably been more permanent.

There is a lot to unpack here. We got a mom purposely buying clothes that are too small for her son’s wife to make her feel bad, a mom who mimics how she talks, and… something about baking panties into brownies?!

But it’s not just the mother doing absolutely foul shit here.

Sir?

WHY is your wife catfishing YOUR MOM?!

Basically, these two women are extremely volatile toward each other and honestly, I’m not sure why this man is trying to defend, well, ANYONE in this story.

Everyone is the asshole here. The chili that sounds like it was made on the set of Hook is the least of anyone’s problems.

(Image: NBC)

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Briana Lawrence

Briana (she/her - bisexual) is trying her best to cosplay as a responsible adult. Her writing tends to focus on the importance of representation, whether it’s through her multiple book series or the pieces she writes. After de-transforming from her magical girl state, she indulges in an ever-growing pile of manga, marathons too much anime, and dedicates an embarrassing amount of time to her Animal Crossing pumpkin patch (it's Halloween forever, deal with it Nook)

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