Husband sparks debate for refusing to go on wife’s ‘girls trip’: ‘I have absolutely zero interest’

‘It is FINE not to want to spend time in a forced vacation with a handful of strangers,’ one reader argues

Kaleigh Werner
New York
Tuesday 23 April 2024 17:28 EDT
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A husband has prompted controversy over his decision to skip a trip with his wife and her friends.

Taking to the popular Reddit confession forum, Am I The A**hole, the candid man questioned whether he was in the wrong for not wanting to attend the annual “girls trip”. To his surprise, readers were torn, debating how he dealt with the situation and the language he used to describe the scenario he’d put himself in if he did accept the invitation.

“My (32M) wife (30F) has this tradition where she goes on an annual ‘girls only’ trip with her closest friends,” he started. “They’ve been doing it since college, and it’s like their sacred bonding time with each other especially since they’ve all been married and have busy lives.”

This year, the trip is no longer just the “girls,” as spouses and partners are invited too. The friends are bringing their husbands now, and the Redditor’s wife wants him to come because she says it will be fun. But the Reddit user said he wasn’t big on the idea for a few reasons.

He said: “Here’s the thing, I have absolutely zero interest in spending a weekend with a bunch of giggling girls and men I don’t even know. I don’t want to sit everywhere all awkward.”

Instead of going on vacation, the Reddit user admitted he’d prefer to stay home and “watch Netflix”.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love my wife and I respect her friendships but I just don’t see the appeal of it,” the husband noted.

After he told his wife he didn’t want to go, she got upset, he wrote. He also said his wife accused him of not wanting to spend time with her friends.

Upon reading the Reddit user’s short excerpt, viewers seemed to be most frustrated by the way he described his wife’s friends.

“Bro. How did you get a woman to marry you while still viewing her and her friends as ‘giggling girls’ instead of, you know, whole and complete people?” a bothered reader questioned. “Also - she’s right! You don’t wanna spend time with her friends. You cannot imagine that they might be interesting people you might get to know better if you went on a trip together.”

Another agreed: “Yeah it was the ‘giggling girls’ for me too, but he easily refers to the men, as well, men.”

“Glad I’m not the only one who is tired of men referring to women as girls and men as men,” a third noted.

A supportive person pointed out: “I get it to a degree. I am still close friends with my college friends - more a family - and every year the guys get together. We are a tough group to understand if you are an ‘outsider’ spouse or girlfriend – decades-long friendships and how we act.”

“It is FINE not to want to spend time in a forced vacation with a handful of strangers,” another Reddit user added.

One disagreed: “Even if they are boring etc - they are [his] wife’s friends. In order to support her, he should just accompany her even if it means to sacrifice an evening...”

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