Woman Forcing Husband to Drive Hours to Replace Chocolate He Ate Backed

A heavily pregnant woman who had her husband driving around "for hours" searching for her favorite chocolate has drawn sympathy online.

The woman, who shared her story to Reddit under the handle EstablishmentFew289, said she "yelled" at her partner after discovering he had eaten some of the special chocolate she had bought during a recent trip to a candy shop.

Her fury prompted her husband to head out in search of the rare sweets, which he found only after spending an extended time driving around the city where they live. The expectant mom's actions drew criticism from her mom, but many online had a degree of understanding in the circumstances.

Though high-fat and high-sugar foods should be avoided where possible during pregnancy, at least one study has shown that moderate amounts of chocolate can be beneficial.

In a review of more than 2,000 pregnancies published in the journal Epidemiology, researchers identified a link between lowered risk of pre-eclampsia and the consumption of chocolate in the first and third trimesters.

Interestingly, the lowered risk for gestational hypertension was associated only with chocolate consumption in the first trimester.

In this particular instance, the chocolate purchased by the heavily pregnant Redditor came from her "favorite chocolate store" located "an hour's drive away."

The issues began when, during a night-in together, she discovered her husband had been helping himself to her favorite flavor "stracciatella."

She got "kind of upset" at this point and, although her husband insisted she could "get some more," the woman said that she had only ever seen that particular flavor at the store she had visited with her mom.

"I yelled at him that it's not like it's easy for me to sit in a car for two hours. He said he would go out right now and replace them," the poster said.

According to the post, her husband ended up hitting "a couple" of drug stores and a few grocery stores before eventually driving across town and returning with "a big bag of just that flavor."

Her mom later spoke to her on the phone and urged her to "calm down," while her husband was left "grumpy" that he had driven around "for hours just to get me chocolate."

However, many on Reddit sympathized, with some even sharing similar stories from their own pregnancies.

Notreally121 recalled "sobbing during my first pregnancy over a brand of potato chips that was discontinued," while Bikini_Atroll "cried hysterically" after they forgot to include a teriyaki sauce with a pizza she ordered.

The sympathy shown by many Redditors was echoed by Dr. Jim Taylor, a leading authority on child development and parenting, who told Newsweek that the expectant mom's response was entirely normal.

"During pregnancy, hormones have a huge impact on women's emotions, resulting in extreme emotions. Plus, the nutritional demands of pregnancy can cause expectant mothers to crave certain foods for the nutrients they supply," Taylor said.

"Put those two forces together, and sometimes you get reactions like this. As any father will tell you, they can often be the brunt of those emotions."

Though he said the husband "probably shouldn't have eaten her favorite chocolates," no one was at fault, in Taylor's opinion, with the argument simply a "normal part of marriage, parenthood and life."

"Given all that women go through during pregnancy and after birth, it seems perfectly reasonable that men should be empathetic and accepting of this behavior, and do what they can to accommodate their wife's needs, including driving all over town to find her favorite chocolates," Taylor said.

Newsweek reached out for comment to u/EstablishmentFew289 and could not verify the details of the case.