A Husband Interrupts His Wife's Shower To Ask Her To Get Out And Start Making Dinner
She voiced her frustration with her husband feigning incompetence at being able to make dinner himself.
Krakenimages.com / VGstockstudio / Rachata Teyparsit / Shutterstock A woman revealed the frustrating question her husband decided to ask her while she was in the middle of showering. Posting to the subreddit "r/TwoXChromosomes" — an online forum intended for women to share their own perspectives and problems — she proved that weaponized incompetence knows no bounds.
Her husband interrupted her shower to ask her if she would get out and start making dinner.
"We have three children, all over the age of 10. My husband was off work today and we’ve been doing errands separately and working around the house," she began in her Reddit post. Right before dinner, she had gotten into the shower and was shocked when her husband busted into the bathroom to ask if she would start making dinner right at that moment.
Recalling their conversation in the post, she noted that he had been extremely passive-aggressive during the ordeal, asking her if she planned on eating dinner. Confused, she asked him what he meant by that, and that she was planning on eating later.
When she inquired why he was asking her these questions about dinner, he claimed that he would need her help in making all of the food. "Keep in mind the man is fully able, and he knows how to cook," she pointed out.
Photo: Reddit
Befuddled by his request, she told him that he didn't need her help since it shouldn't be that hard for him to chop up some onions and cook the meat, but her answer only angered him and he stormed out of the bathroom wordlessly.
"I have been married to this man for 20 years and I promise in all that time I’ve never needed a welfare check while I am showering. We had the menu planned and groceries bought hours ago (I made a suggestion, [but] he said no and specified another entree)," she wrote.
She acknowledged that it was ridiculous of him to ask her to drop everything, get out of the shower, and start making dinner when all of the ingredients and everything he needed to cook were all right there in the kitchen for him to do himself.
"Not gonna lie, this kind of makes me want to stay in this bathroom all night!" she joked.
Unfortunately, this type of 'weaponized incompetence' has proven to be rather common in heteronormative relationships.
This refers to a pattern where one partner, often men in the context of heterosexual relationships, feigns incompetence in performing certain tasks, such as household chores or childcare responsibilities, to avoid taking on those responsibilities. The results of weaponized incompetence often lie in the number of wives and mothers who find themselves taking on more household responsibilities than their male partners.
According to a report by Oxfam and the Institute for Women's Policy Research, women in the United States spend two hours more each day cleaning, cooking, taking care of children, and doing other unpaid work than men.
The study, which analyzes data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey, found that women aged 15 and older spend 5.7 hours daily doing housework and looking after kids and elders, while men in the same age range do so for 3.6 hours each day.
Women aged 15-24 also spend 54% more time on housework than men the same age and women ages 25-34 spend 51% more time on those chores.
This type of dynamic is extremely toxic and reinforces traditional gender stereotypes that certain tasks are meant to primarily be handled by women. In any relationship, especially a marriage, household responsibilities and childcare should be split evenly, so that one partner isn't always doing most of the work all of the time.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.