How One Guest's Decision to Bring Food to a Party Went Wrong: 'I Was Just Trying to Be Helpful'

Hosting and attending a party involve specific etiquette. As a host, you should care for your guests to guarantee they enjoy themselves, while as an attendee, it's vital to show respect to the host and appreciate their generosity.

Recently, a Reddit user posted about a conflict they experienced with a good friend. They shared that while he is a good friend, he is not the best host. His parties always have plenty of drinks but never enough food. The host often orders pizzas, but there is only enough pizza for one serving per person. A few guests have even commented about still being hungry, and some even talk about getting food on their way home or leaving early to go to a different party.

In the post, the guest says for the latest party, they offered to bring additional food, knowing there most likely wouldn't be enough. But the friend declined the offer, claiming he had all the food covered. Instead of respecting the host's wishes, the Reddit user brought food to the party anyway to supplement the spread.

"He was visibly annoyed but didn't say anything about it, he was just short and avoided me for most of the evening. The next day he texted me saying it was rude to bring food to someone else's house like that," they wrote. "I apologized and said I was just trying to be helpful and reminded him about how food had run out at previous get togethers and I was just trying to help avoid that. He got mad and accused me of saying he's a bad host. I told him I didn't think that was true at all."

The Reddit user shared that the host hasn't responded to any messages since then, asking Reddit users for advice on whether it was rude to bring food to the friend's party. Users flooded the comments section. Many were torn, saying it was rude to bring food after the host's refusal. Others suggested that instead of being passive-aggressive, they should have been honest with the friend about the lack of food at the parties.

"I'm torn on this but I'm going with ESH. This has happened multiple times, obviously, so it's an ongoing issue for your friend. I think a direct conversation with him would be preferable to just showing up with food," one person wrote.

Another wrote: "I honestly think it’s weird to be upset about someone bringing more food to a party? Also, if he’s supplying lots of alcohol, people need to be consuming more food. That’s just my opinion though." Other users made similar statements, agreeing that it's acceptable to bring food to a casual party, which this party was.