A Husband Is 'Reconsidering' His Marriage After His Wife Told People He's Really A Fast Food Worker, Not A Pilot
He's infuriated his wife won't call him a pilot. He's also never flown a plane a day in his life.
WeAre/Shutterstock.com A man is considering divorcing his wife—and the reason is so petty and strange it has left people slack-jawed.
Posting to the "r/AmITheA--hole" (AITA) subReddit, the man detailed what exactly has him so upset at his wife.
In his post, which has since been deleted but lives on in the form of screenshots on Twitter and elsewhere, the man explained that he feels his wife does not respect his job.
That is, the job he wishes people thought he had, at least.
His wife refuses to refer to him as a 'pilot' and tells people his actual job title — a restaurant manager.
The man writes that he and his wife have an "amazing, happy relationship" but that the rift over his hobby is making him "reconsider the health of our relationship."
His passion for flying planes has led him to spend "thousands of dollars on flight textbooks, sim gear and even" to build his own replica of an Airbus A330 long-haul commercial jetliner.
Suffice it to say he is very serious about his aviation hobby, but has "never actually flown a plane or started flight training."
Nevertheless, he has "considered it for a long time," and still "[considers himself] as adept or possibly more knowledgeable than the average pilot."
How that's possible when he hasn't ever flown a plane is anyone's guess, and his wife, a senior software tech at a start-up, definitely doesn't seem convinced.
When they recently attended a barbecue hosted by his wife's coworkers, the conversation turned to what he does for a living.
His wife told her colleagues that he is a restaurant manager "in a voice that implied nothing was wrong with what she said."
'I very quickly corrected her and told him that I am a pilot,' he writes.
His wife, he says, knows how insecure he is about his job as a restaurant manager, and he thinks the way she introduced him was "incredibly disrespectful."
"I’ve earned the title of pilot through my 500+ hours on sim and thousands of dollars put into my craft," he writes, despite never actually having flown a plane.
He even went so far as to tell his wife's coworkers that she was "forgetful" and her slip-up was because she forgot he's actually a pilot.
After they left the barbecue, they got into a huge fight because he says she is "completely insensitive to the work i’ve done and she will never understand what it’s like to study so much."
Reddit commenters could not believe the man actually thought his title should be pilot instead of restaurant manager, and nearly unanimously agreed that his wife did nothing wrong in revealing his actual job.
Some found the man's Reddit post so unhinged they struggled to even believe he was serious.
As one slack-jawed user put it, "This can’t be real. It doesn’t take a pilot (something that you are literally not) to tell that you’re a huge a--hole."
"How arrogant of you to decide you know more than the average pilot when you aren’t even a pilot. What you did is LIE about your profession. Grow up."
An actual pilot chimed in, too, and he did not mince a single word.
"Even the nerdiest of avgeeks and aerosexuals, with thousands of dollars of sim equipment, suck so hard at flying when they start out..."
"...If you go around telling people you're a pilot and then they find out you've literally never piloted an aircraft? They're going to think you're actually insane."
And the man's denigration of his wife's job didn't go over well with the pilot either.
He went on to write, "If I was your wife I'd leave you. Imagine...belittling someone...to explain that you are a pretend pilot... Get professional help."
In fact, lots of people were shocked by the way the man insulted his wife.
One Twitter user tweeted, "I think the part that really gets me is that she’s a senior software engineer and he says 'she will never understand what it's like to study so much.'"
Another pilot summed up the situation perfectly.
"No pilot in existence, and certainly no one employed by the FAA, gives a sh-t how many sim hours you have or how much money you sunk into your setup..."
"YOU ARE NOT A PILOT... Sincerely, A LEGITIMATE PILOT." Yikes. Tough, but fair!
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.