While most of us are quite realistic in that we don’t expect to be treated exceptionally nice by just anyone, it is mostly different with people close to us, especially our romantic partners. These are people that we open ourselves up to and tend to have somewhat higher standards for when it comes to simple kindness, empathy, and understanding. And while attention often manifests in small gestures, sometimes people don’t seem interested in creating a relationship of this sort or even understanding the value of it. At least this seems to have been the problem with this Redditor’s attitude towards sharing his food with his girlfriend.

More info: Reddit

A guy got lucky with his food order but disappointed his girlfriend when he refused to share it

Image credits: Gustavo Fring

It all started when a couple ordered “surprise bags” for dinner and both got surprised for a different reason

Image credits: u/FuquaNumba1

Image credits: Jacoby Clarke

Image credits: u/FuquaNumba1

The man scored a massive BBQ buffet, which included burnt ends, ribs, pulled pork, baked beans, and more

Image credits: cottonbro studio

The girlfriend was disappointed to find 6 different soups, half of which were variations of a cauliflower soup

A guy shared his story with a Reddit community online, asking if he was being a jerk for refusing to share his food with his girlfriend. The whole situation started when the couple decided to get “surprise bags” for dinner and while the man ordered his meal from a barbecue place, his girlfriend wasn’t in the mood for it, and asked him to pick one for her from an Indian restaurant nearby.

After the boyfriend came back home and the couple unpacked their meals, they both were surprised by the content of their bags, however, for different reasons. While the boyfriend was hyped by the massive barbeque buffet in his box, which included burnt ends, ribs, pulled pork, baked beans, potato salad, bread, onions, and pickles, his girlfriend was disappointed “to say the least” to find 6 different types of soup in her bag, with half of them being variations of cauliflower soup.

The woman asked her boyfriend to share his food, but he refused, suggesting that she either order food from a delivery app, which was somewhat out of the woman’s budget at that point, or to walk to a grocery store for her, as she could hardly do it herself due to her leg being broken. The woman opened up about wanting to have a hot meal, but her boyfriend simply told her “she has soup”.

The whole situation made the woman angry, calling her boyfriend a jerk, and Redditors seemed to agree with her judgment, noting that while “technically” he didn’t have to share his food, it is unfortunate to have a boyfriend who wouldn’t want to share and even had no concept of “being nice and making small sacrifices for one’s partner”, in addition to suggesting the man “reconsider when to be selfish and when not”.

The girlfriend asked if they could share his food, but he refused, saying he could walk to the shop

Image credits: Liza Summer

The woman got disappointed as she wanted a hot meal and called her boyfriend a jerk for not sharing

Derrick Carpenter for verywellmind discussed the importance of developing empathy in close relationships as well as taking action and offering help. While empathy allows one to put themselves into another person’s shoes and in such a way get closer to them, sometimes it is not enough.

Verywellmind noted that as empathy means adopting the emotion but not the tough situation that gave rise to it, a person is often in a more empowered place to help. They suggested taking notice when you are in a position to help and listed tips for developing empathy and thus strengthening one’s relationships.

These included paying attention to how another person is feeling, focusing on listening to another person by managing both the distractions as well as one’s own feelings, and working on staying emotionally attuned throughout the conversation. Finally, they advised taking action – recognizing that you can do things, however small, to make a difference in someone else’s life.

Redditors voted the boyfriend to be a jerk and failing in being “nice and making small sacrifices for your partner”

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