Husband Laughs At Stay-At-Home Mom’s Workload To The Applause Of Internet

The story, posted to an anonymous forum on Reddit, detailed a brief interaction with the married couple that resulted in a dispute.

While many found the whole thing comical, there were those on the AITA (Am I The A–hole) thread who questioned OP’s (a.k.a. the “original poster”) overall perspective due to a few words contained in his post.

Read on to see for yourself.

“This morning I walked into my room to find my wife sitting on our bed looking stressed,” the man began, before then noting, “I was on my wa[y] to do my hour commute and to work, she is a stay at home mom.”

“Seeing her distress, I walked over, rubbed her back and asked her what was wrong,” OP recalled. “She said that she was trying to relax before her very full day. I asked her what she was doing today. She said ‘I don’t know’.”

“This made me laugh,” he admitted. “This comment genuinely struck my funny bone. I was immutably chastised for laughing, and accused of not being caring.”

“Am I the a– for having a genuine reaction to something my wife said that I thought was funny?” he concluded.

As noted previously, most found the whole situation comical.

“NTA [Not The A–hole], from an outside perspective it’s almost a comedy bit,” one commenter wrote, before setting up a similar joke:

“hey what’s up”
“don’t distract me I’m mentally preparing!”
“for what?”
“I have no idea!”

They then concluded: “That’ll get a laugh track in a ’90s sitcom 100%”.

Another shared a link to this common meme:

While yet another philosophized: “Usurpation of expectations is a root of comedy. This would probably make me chuckle too, but I’d also probably shut myself up and talk to her about what I could do to make her feel less overwhelmed. You’re not laughing at her emotional state. That would be assholeish. I’m going with NAH, but you need to have an open and deep conversation on how you can help support her more. Too little info here to make too many assumptions other than she’s clearly overwhelmed.”

However, not everyone thought the whole thing was pure comedy.

“Comedically it’s funny, but clearly your wife feels overwhelmed by her day, whether she knows what’s in store for her or not,” one Redditor noted. “Seems like something y’all should talk about because I don’t see the part of the story where you have a discussion about why getting out of bed feels stressful to her. NTA for laughing but your job here is not done.”

While another observed: “A lot of the time if you don’t know what’s coming your way that day, it’s not because you have nothing to do, it’s just that you know you’re heading into chaos, which can be overwhelming. You can’t plan, you can’t really mitigate it, all you can do is react and try to put out the fires.”

“No idea if that definitely applies to the wife but her reaction suggests that it could be,” they continued. “So while what she said is funny, it’s actually a problem. I think I’m going to say NAH but apologise and maybe try to find something nice to do for her, she sounds really unhappy.”

Yet another pointed out the language OP used: “I feel like the fact you thought to mention your ‘hour commute’ and how she’s a SAHM implies your opinion that her work is less tiring or valuable than hers is, which leads me to lean more towards the Soft YTA [You’re The A–hole] on this one.”

While another Redditor asked for more information: “You say she’s a SAHM. How many kids, and how old? I nanny 3 very young (toddler & infant) children, and I often have to mentally prepare myself for a long day in which I have no idea what will happen bc kids are kids and they change moods/attitudes allllll the time. My guess is that she knows she has a long day of childcare ahead of her and doesn’t have a mental “plan’ for the day, which can also be a source of stress! Your response sounds obtuse at best and I’m leaning Y T A.”

What do you think?