This happened to me a few years ago, but my daughter and I just had a laugh about it and she told me to write this story here to see what others outside the family think.

My husband (53M) and I (50F) were attending our niece’s college graduation party with his side of the family. It was a nice backyard party that a local Italian restaurant catered for. Picture the lengthy buffet tables with the silver trays of heated food. Everyone, including us, was having a lovely time and the food was great.

When everyone finished eating, my sister-in-law and mother-in-law handed out take-home containers to everyone. They were so kind and even encouraged us to grab some leftovers for our two kids who were unable to attend. We filled up two of those round, plastic containers, along with many other attendees who also grabbed leftovers.

We stacked our two containers on the table we were sitting at with all of our belongings. My husband’s cousins don’t live locally, so we meandered away from the table to chat with them and enjoy their company some more. We were just hanging out, and then my sister-in-law put out some coffee and cake. My husband and I each grabbed a coffee, then headed back to our table when we noticed our previously-packed leftovers weren’t there.

We were confused, but I got pulled into a conversation so my husband started looking for the containers. His mom noticed him looking around and asked him what was going on. That’s when my husband found the leftovers we packed with two women, total strangers from our niece’s boyfriend’s family. They actually took our containers of food, brought them to their own table, and were eating them. Directly from the containers. FYI, they packed their OWN containers of leftovers that THEY were taking home, too.

That’s when I heard my husband say, “that’s the food I packed, that I was taking home.” He was mostly addressing his mom and me, but he intentionally said it right in front of them. In my opinion, he wasn’t rude but he sounded genuinely incredulous at the situation. Obviously, we weren’t going to take home those containers after strangers were eating out of them, so we were a little annoyed that we now had nothing to bring back for our kids.

The women were COMPLETELY insulted. It was an older mother and daughter, probably around 80 and 50. The daughter said it shouldn’t matter because it’s a party of family and friends, that my husband was rude and in the wrong. They actually threatened to “just leave right then and there” and started gathering their things to go, but my husband’s sister talked them down. She didn’t want the drama ruining the party for my niece, which I understand.

Both women ended up staying at the party, having cake, and avoiding us for the remainder of the night. To this day, the family is divided on the matter. My husband and I think that although it wasn’t a huge deal, it was just absurd of these two women to do that. Others think we should have just let it go and not said anything. Tell me, reddit, are we the assholes?