Woman praised for sending unemployed husband to live with his parents: ‘Divorce him’

‘Don’t let him back into the house unless you just want a mooch, lazy, roommate that won’t pay rent,’ one person said

Meredith Clark
New York
Saturday 20 August 2022 02:28 EDT
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A woman’s Reddit post is going viral after she admitted that she wants her unemployed husband to live with his parents until he finds a job.

In a post shared to the popular Reddit forum r/AmITheA**hole, user u/throwaway7487473 explained that her husband was “laid off” from his job two months ago and she has been footing the bill for his comfortable lifestyle. Since it was posted on Wednesday, the viral thread has received 17.8k votes and more than 3,000 comments from people telling her to kick her husband to the curb.

“My husband (32) and I (30) have been married for just over a year now and things couldn’t be rockier,” the post began. “I have a good job and make a decent amount of money, whereas my husband made not as much as me.”

The couple decided that her husband – who was still living with his parents when they got married – would move into her house. “I would continue to pay the rent and bills as long as he put money toward other things we may need as a couple,” she added.

Once they got married, the woman explained that her husband “cut down on his work hours” without consulting her first. “He gave the explanation that I made plenty of money for the both of us so he could just work part time and do the work around the house while I was the main breadwinner,” she said. Although she was ultimately OK with the idea, the wife was still upset that he hadn’t discussed cutting down on his work hours with her first.

Initially, her husband did some work around the house, but he would spend the majority of his time going out to bars and playing video games “to the point where I was the one both working and doing the cooking, cleaning and other household chores”.

In June, her husband told her he was “laid off” for reasons “out of his control”, and she assumed that he would begin looking for a job during his free time. When she asked him how the job hunt was going about a week ago, her husband said that “he didn’t feel like it was worth it” to find another job.

“While I do earn a decent amount of money, it’s not to the point where I can pay for rent, bills, groceries, insurance, contribute to emergency savings and finance the lifestyle my husband had started indulging in,” the woman wrote. “I began paying for his nights out, subbing him money for trips to look for work, all while I was under the assumption he would be searching for a new job.”

When she finally confronted her husband about how she was spending all her money to finance his hobbies and taking care of the household chores, he let slip that he “actually quit and never looked for another job”.

“I was furious that he had lied to me and told him I didn’t want him in my home right now,” she said. “Fast forward to now. My in-laws are understanding to an extent but are calling me an a**hole for not wanting him to come back home until he gets a job.”

The viral post received thousands of comments from fellow Reddit users urging the woman to leave her husband. The top comment came from user u/soundslikemahnamahna, who listed out all the lies her husband has told her since they got married: “He cut down his hours without discussing it, he quit his job and lied about it, he spends his time partying with his buddies and having you foot the bill, he lied about job searching, he won’t help keep up the household.”

“Don’t let him back into the house unless you just want a mooch, lazy, roommate that won’t pay rent,” they said.

“Your husband is totally taking advantage of you,” said u/car55tar5. “He didn’t give you any choice in any of this – he just made decisions and forced you to go along with them. Divorce him. He’s literally dead weight and you’re better off without him.”

One person pointed out, “If the situations were reversed and he was here we’d be calling you a gold digger,” while another user wrote: “Block the in-laws and contact a lawyer. They raised a dud and want you to take care of it.”

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