← Home / Culture

Heartwarming·Culture· Apr 17, 2026 · 7 min

The Only Downside of Living with Grandma Is Getting Fed Too Much

A guy lists the pros and cons of moving in with his grandma — every single con is about food.

What's going on

A young man in Japan went viral after posting a pros-and-cons list about moving in with his grandmother last year. The pros were legitimately impressive — she handles all the housework, irons his shirts, whisks him matcha *(a powdered green tea prepared by whisking in a bowl; it's a proper skill that takes practice)*, and passes down old-school wisdom. The "cons," however, gave the internet pause.

Every single downside was about food. She tries to feed him the moment he walks in the door, even when he just ate. She buries him in snacks. And somehow she keeps producing enormous manjū *(traditional Japanese steamed buns filled with sweet red bean paste)* of completely unknown origin. The comments that followed turned into a warm collective memory — elderly people explaining why they do it, grandkids sharing their own overfed stories, and everyone quietly acknowledging that these particular "complaints" are the kind you'll miss for the rest of your life.

Comments

Started living with my grandma 👵 last year.

Pros:

  • Does all the housework
  • Irons my shirts 👔
  • Makes me matcha
  • Teaches me stuff I’d never have learned otherwise

Cons:

  • Tries to feed me even when I literally just told her I already ate
  • Force-feeds me a lethal quantity of snacks
  • WHERE does she even buy manjū that big??
去年から婆ちゃん👵と住むようになり メリット ・家事全般をやってくれる ・👔にアイロンかけてくれる ・お抹茶を立ててくれる ・知らない知恵を教えてくれる デメリット ・ご飯食べてきたっつってんのにご飯を食わせようとする ・死ぬほどお菓子を食わしてくる ・どこにそんなデカい饅頭売ってるの?
Hold on!! Every single one of those “cons” is also a pro!!! ‼️‼️‼️‼️
うぉい!!全部メリットやないかい‼️‼️‼️‼️
The giant manjū lmaooo
デカい饅頭wwwwww
The fact that the only downside is “the quantity of food” is kinda beautiful.
デメリットが「食べ物の量」だけなの素敵。
Yeah, now that you mention it… there really aren’t any other cons lol
そうですね他のデメリットは……ないっすね笑
Update: I just got through a massive piece of karaage and she’s already cutting me a thick slab of castella. (Castella is a dense, moist Japanese sponge cake typically sold in large loaf-shaped blocks.)
今巨大な唐揚げを食わされた後にでかいカステラを切られました。
I feel this so hard… my grandma shoves food at me constantly lol. I’m grateful, I really am… but also… 😭
わかる……ばあちゃんめっちゃ食わせてくるwwwwwありがたいけど…ありがたいけども………
The enormous manjū got me lmao
デカい饅頭ワロタ
Photo of the manjū. Now.
饅頭の写真はよ
Sorry, it’s already gone. All I can say is — it was big. Like, fist-sized.
今無くてごめんやで、とにかくなんかしらんデカいで。拳くらいある。
My grandma used to give me Yamazaki sake manjū when I was little, and I swear those things were face-sized. Looking at them now they’re still basically fist-sized, so yeah. Big.
婆ちゃん、小さい頃ヤマザキの酒饅頭よくくれたけど顔くらいデカかったなアレは、今見ても拳くらいのサイズ感あるからやっぱりデカい
Grandmas definitely operate on the assumption that their grandkids are always starving.
婆ちゃんって、孫は常に腹空かせてるって思ってるフシがあるよね
That’s just a trait of the elderly. “Anyone younger than me must be hungry.” And honestly — hungry people make bad decisions. So first things first: fill the belly. Sounds like a lovely grandma. 😊
ご老人の特徴ですね。「(自分より)若い人は、お腹が空いている。」ま、人間、腹がへると良くない行動を取りやすい。なので、先ずはお腹一杯に。素敵な、お婆ちゃまですな。😊
Now that I’m older myself, I finally understand. It just makes her so happy when you eat… whether you’re digging in with gusto or groaning that you can’t fit another bite. Having good food to give, and being able to give it to someone you love — that’s what happiness feels like for her.
私も高齢になってみておばあちゃまのお気持ち分る。食べてくれるの嬉しいのよ…美味しそうに食べてくれるのも、もう食べられないよ!と苦しそうに食べてくれるのも。美味しいものがいっぱいあってそれを食べてもらえる、食べさせてあげられることが幸せなの…
I didn’t get it before. But now that I can’t eat as much myself, watching young people pack it away actually makes me happy. The effect is even stronger when it’s family.
わからんかったけど自分が食えないようになってきたけど若いのが沢山食べるの見てるの嬉しいってなるわかってきた 身内や親しい人だと特にバフかかる
It’s not just grandmas — whenever you visit family, they stuff you to the brim and then go “did you put on a little weight?” What even is that
おばあちゃんてか、実家連中ってめちゃくちゃ食わせてくるくせに「あんたちょっと太った?」って聞いてくるよね あれほんとなに
The mystery of feeding you to bursting and then asking if you’ve gained weight — decoded: “Eat, eat more” = I want you full and happy “Did you gain weight?” = I’m worried about your health In conclusion: it’s all love.
自分がいっぱい食わせておいて、太ったんじゃないか?と聞いてくる謎 「食え食え」→お腹いっぱいにしてあげたい 「太ったか?」→健康かどうかが心配 つまり全部愛
As you get older, you just start wanting to feed your family as much as possible. You want them well-fed and healthy.
歳をとると共に自分の家族には沢山食べさせて元気でいてもらいたいと思うようになるんよ。
I used to think the joy elderly people get from feeding their kids and grandkids came from growing up during postwar scarcity (Japan experienced severe food shortages during and after WWII). But maybe it’s just a universal human instinct that kicks in with age.
お年寄りの、子や孫にお腹いっぱい食べさせることで得られる幸福感って、戦後の物のない時代に育った影響だと思っていたけどもしかしたら歳をとった人類の習性なのかもしれない。
Yep, that’s just how it is. We old ladies see a young person and immediately want to hand them snacks. It’s just what we are.
あああ。そうなの。我々ババア、若い子を見るとやお菓子を食べさせようとするの そう言う生き物なのよ
Grandmas really do just never stop feeding you lolololol the mikan and senbei (mikan = Japanese mandarin oranges; senbei = rice crackers) never stop coming, and the second your green tea runs low she refills it. Those are the moments I feel most loved. I love you grandma.
おばあちゃんってほんとに食べさせてくるwwwwwwwwみかんとせんべい永遠に出てくるしコップの緑茶なくなったらすぐに入れてくれる愛情感じる瞬間だいすきおばあちゃん
Grandmas seriously never stop with the snacks and fruit, but like… grandkids have a limited stomach too… And if you ever mention you like something, she’ll send you home with a bulk supply every single visit. I know it’s huge love, but a full cardboard box of Furuchē (Furuchē is a popular Japanese instant fruit dessert — just add milk and it sets into a creamy pudding) is physically heavy to carry home… still made me happy though.
マジでおばあちゃんって一生お菓子やらフルーツやら出してくるけど、孫の胃にもキャパがあって…あと、1回好きって言った食べ物を遊びに行く度に大量に持たせてくれる。デッケェ愛なのは分かるけど、フルーチェをダンボール箱いっぱいは物理的に重いよ…でも嬉しかったな
This made me think of my grandma 🥹 She’d keep refilling my tea no matter how much I drank so I’d be constantly running to the bathroom. She’d sew up the holes in my ripped jeans. Her place always had a ton of snacks. And her insanely sweet tamagoyaki was actually delicious.
うちのばあちゃん思い出しました🥹 飲んでも飲んでもお茶ついでくれるからめっちゃトイレ行く ダメージジーンズの穴縫ってくれる ばあちゃんちにはお菓子いっぱいある クソ甘い卵焼きが美味しい
I only visit on weekends but every time it’s a mountain of food, and right when I think I’m done she brings out a roll cake 😂 And snacks — eat this, eat this too, have more! 🤣 But she serves everything with this big happy smile so I just keep eating even when I’m dying 😇 I try to eat really light for dinner afterward, but honestly I don’t think it’s working. (looks at own stomach)
うちは週末遊びに行くくらいですが、毎回あれもこれもと出してくれてお腹いっぱいなのに最後にロールケーキ出てきます😂お菓子もこれ食べなこれもこれもと🤣 けどニコニコしながら出してくれるから苦しくても食べちゃう😇夜は超軽めにして調整してますがたぶん出来てないな(腹を見る)
That’s just what grandmas do. Sushi, stewed dishes, tempura, karaage, pizza, steak — then for “dessert” she makes you pick coffee or tea and brings out cake, then jelly, then cookies and dorayaki (dorayaki = two small fluffy pancakes sandwiching sweet red bean paste), and then she starts boiling soba or udon. Then for “after-meal tea” she peels an apple and brings out pickles and kuri-shigure. (kuri-shigure = a delicate wagashi sweet made from chestnut and red bean paste)
ばあちゃんってそういうもんだろ お寿司煮物天ぷら唐揚げピザステーキ出して食後のデザートにしようってコーヒーか紅茶選ばせてケーキ出してゼリー出してクッキーとどら焼き出したあとにそばかうどん茹で始めるだろ それで食後のお茶って言ってりんごむいてお漬物と栗しぐれ出してくるだろ
My grandma makes massive batches of anko (sweet red bean paste), so I get homemade country-style manjū on the hour, every hour. When I get tired of sweets, she resets my palate with pickles.
お婆ちゃん、大量のあんこを作る 私、田舎饅頭を毎時食わされる 飽きたらお漬け物リセットが入る
My grandma grew cabbage in her garden and made these massive mountains of shredded cabbage salad with a generous squeeze of mayo, and I gained a ridiculous amount of weight eating it. I had to ask my mom to tell her to stop — I couldn’t say it myself when she’d gone to all that trouble 😅
祖母が畑で作ったキャベツを山盛り千切りにして、それなりのマヨネーズかけて食べてたら どえれー太った。母に「美味しくて全部食べてしまう。千切りキャベツはやめて貰えるよう言って欲しい」とお願いした。せっかく作ってもらってるから、自分では言いづらい😅
Grandmas across the nation operate on the assumption that their grandkids have infinite stomach capacity… 😇
全国のおばあちゃんは、孫は無限に食うものと思っている・・・😇
Every single one of those “cons” is just love. They’re the kind of cons that’ll make you ache with nostalgia someday…
そのデメリット、丸ごと愛なんだよなぁ。いつか泣きたくなるくらい懐かしくなるデメリットだよ・・・
She lived alone deep in the mountains, but every time I visited she had a full meal waiting. She’d send me home with bags of vegetables and side dishes, and still slip me pocket money. Looking back now, I can’t believe how lucky I was to have that kind of unconditional love. Made me think of her.
山奥に一人で住んでるのに、いつ行っても美味しいご飯を作ってくれて、帰りには沢山お野菜やおかずを持たせてくれて、お小遣いまでくれて、今になってみれば、その無償の愛情がどれほどありがたかったことか、しみじみ祖母を思い出しました。
Please hold onto those memories. I still remember every dish my grandma ever fed me. And she’s been gone for over twenty years.
その思い出を大事にして欲しい。おばあちゃんの食べさせてくれた料理は未だに覚えてるんですよね。亡くなって20年以上たつのに
I’ll engrave it in my heart — along with this very heavy stomach. (staring at the bathroom scale)
この重い腹と共に胸に刻もうと思います(体重計を眺めながら)
What a luxury that is. Make sure you talk with her a lot.
贅沢な時間だぜー。たくさんお婆さんと話をしてね。

My take

You can really feel how much they love their grandkids. And honestly, maybe there's another side to it too — grandparents wanting their grandchildren to need them, even if food is the only way they know how to show it.
Source & translation note

Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.

View original thread →