The woman's husband used to do chores but slowly started slacking until he stopped doing them at all.
Women are often expected to manage both household chores and their jobs. However, one 29-year-old woman decided to take a stand and give her husband a reality check. u/Such_Conversation_57 shared their story on Reddit, gaining widespread support from the online community.
She began by explaining that she lives with her 32-year-old husband, Tom, who sees his daughter Anna only on weekends. "I love Tom a lot, but honestly he can be a little exhausting sometimes. Anna is always sweet," she wrote. She then shared some background about her parents' relationship, revealing that her mother did most of the household work despite having a high-paying job like her dad. She often saw her mom working on the laptop, cooking, and cleaning while her father relaxed on the couch playing video games.
Growing up in that environment, she was determined not to marry a man like her dad. "Now, years later... I'm kind of in that position. Tom does indeed bring in a lot of money, but so do I. The first year or so was good. Sometimes he forgot things and had to be reminded, but overall he did what he was supposed to," she wrote. However, he started slacking off, leaving major household chores to her. She shared, "Every time I brought it up and tried to get him to change, he at first promised he would and then go back to his normal routine a few days later, and then later on he would just sulk every time I asked him to do the chores."
So slowly, the woman stopped asking him to do any chores. However, the 29-year-old had to end up giving him a reality check one weekend. She shared that Tom brought his daughter Anna to their home while she was working on a big project on her laptop. He took Anna out for breakfast and then came back around noon and asked his wife what was for lunch. She told him that she would make sandwiches or something later because she was busy.
The woman said, "He kind of looked at me weirdly, and then went and sat on the couch and played video games while Anna napped. Every once in a while he would look over at me, and then go back to playing video games." Later, he left the controller and came to her and asked why the sandwiches had not been made yet. She shared, "I told him that he knew I had a big project I was working on and would do it later. He tried to take the computer away from me coaxingly and said that Anna would be hungry and that the project could wait."
The wife got quite upset and told him that he "had arms and legs and a working brain so he could make lunch too. And that he does this all the time, and that he needs to start pulling his weight." He got startled and yelled back at her saying that cooking was her job. She explained that she usually does the cooking because she likes it. “I told him fine. I said (in a sarcastic way) I was sorry for trying to push my duties onto him,” she wrote. She shared that she had been about to make the sandwiches after a small portion of work was done but instead, she told him that she would only do it once all her work was done. So they could either find some other form of food or wait. She asked people on the platform if she was wrong in doing so.
u/caspian4136 commented, “Your husband has conditioned you into doing all the work around the house and you've let it slide, you even admitted you stopped asking because it never got anywhere. Now you've got a 32-year-old son on top of a 5-year-old stepdaughter. He is so lazy and immature and you shouldn't put up with this anymore. Put your foot down with him! He's fully capable of making a few sandwiches for lunch, which is the easiest thing to make - especially as he knows you're busy on a big work project.” u/vigilante_shxt wrote, "You're married to an entitled brat. Whether you do the majority of the cooking or not, the man can make himself and his kid a damn sandwich."
u/sporezealot asked, "If you cook, what family/household tasks are Tom's to do? He should be doing something." u/[deleted] expressed, "Your husband sounds like he’s gotten lazy. I recommend you stop doing everything and start doing it for yourself to see how he reacts. I mean look how he reacted to the sandwich situation. Albeit you did say you would make the sandwiches but you were also working and he could see that. He’s plenty capable of contributing to the household chores."