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She even locked up his video game console to prevent him from playing until he started doing some chores around their house.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Apr 06, 2023
"I work in my own start-up. [My] husband, John, works in a movie theater. The chore dynamic at home was always heavily skewed," a woman started a confessional, posted to the subreddit "r/AmItheA--hole" (AITA).
The subreddit is an online forum where users try to figure out if they were wrong or not in an argument that has been bothering them. In her Reddit post, the woman explained that she considers herself a very neat and organized person, while her husband isn't the same way.
He complained that his wife doesn't do anything and called her a 'homemaker' after she refused to make him lunch.
The writer of the post shared that as the CEO of her own company, she works every day of the week from home. After starting her company, her husband, John, was "investing" himself into doing more chores around the house.
However, once movie theaters started opening back up again, she admitted that he's now stopped doing chores altogether.
"I have been lenient and doing more than my share since he comes home every day exhausted and complaining," she pointed out. "After work, he does nothing but leisure, totally overlooking the fact manages our household ON TOP OF running my company."
She acknowledged that she's been allowing John to walk all over her, and doesn't speak up about his behavior because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings. Though, her restraint snapped after he "crossed the line" and chose to insult her.
On the weekends, John doesn't have to work, and instead of helping around the house, he will lounge on the couch and play video games, as he was doing on a particular weekend. As usual, his wife was working and had been working all day long.
At some point, John got up and went looking for his wife, asking her if she would be making lunch soon. In response, she told she was busy with work and why didn't he just make something for himself, seeing as he is an adult with two working legs and hands.
"He declined, then complained that it was so much easier in his grandfather's time when the "homemaker" didn't do anything other than 'her duties.'"
As soon as he said that, the two of them got into a heated argument. He claimed that he was the "breadwinner" of the house, and said that he does most of the work since his job is in-person while she works from home.
"I steamrolled his claims by pointing out that I earn much more money than him, I work long hours and still do all the chores," she rebutted.
She decided to give him an extensive list of chores to do as retaliation for his comment.
Come Monday morning, she handed her husband a long list of chores to do, which would take him up to three hours to complete every day. She pointed out that she's spent the bulk of their marriage doing chores around the house while he doesn't do much.
When John told her that he wasn't going to be doing the chores, she shouted at him that she's spent their time together "picking up the ball that he keeps dropping." She even "locked up" his PS5 in their safe and changed the combination until he picked up his weight around their house.
"This is not in my nature - I am usually polite and soft-spoken, and I feel like an a-hole when [I] see him looking like a sad puppy and whining that he is tired," she admitted. "But I just... snapped."
However, she felt she had no choice but to put her foot down on the matter.
"If I let John do nothing and consider himself the breadwinner who deserves to come home to a clean house and warm meal through no effort of his own, I would lock myself into a life of servitude."
Many Reddit users were astounded at the behavior of her husband, and some even encouraged her that she might want to take this behavior as a sign that the relationship is over.
"You are putting effort in both your career and homemaking while he does very little. And he doesn't appreciate your hard work," one user wrote, while another added, "This marriage shouldn't last."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics.