Husband Asks If He Was Wrong To Padlock Freezer To Stop Wife From Using It
Don't mess with the man's food.
Friends Stock / Shutterstock A husband has taken to Reddit because of a dilemma he has been having — his wife refuses to stop buying frozen food and overloading their freezer.
Listen, living with someone makes us all do crazy things sometimes so while this dilemma may not seem like the worst thing that can happen, surely we can all relate to the man's woes.
The man took his issue to the subreddit, "r/AmItheA--hole" which allows you to ask internet strangers for their opinion on something that has been bothering you.
Once you tell your story, the community will look at what has been presented and decide if "You're the A--hole" (YTA), "Not the A--hole" (NTA), or if "Everyone sucks here" (ESH).
The husband threw out his wife's frozen food and then padlocked his freezer to keep her out.
The husband begins his post by saying that he and his wife have been married for four years and get along well — except for their issue with the freezer.
"Simply put, my wife stuffs the freezer full of food constantly. There is absolutely zero space for me to put anything in there," he clarifies.
He says he tried to resolve the issue by spending a lot on a nice fridge with remarkable freezer space, but that didn't work.
"She interpreted this as an invitation to buy more frozen food so she could play microwave dinner Tetris with the freezer. Every single nook and cranny is stuffed full. She still buys frozen foods and somehow finds a way to fit them in," he says when buying the new fridge didn't work.
The husband says that his wife will nag him three or four times, asking when he's going to take his food out, only for her to put food in there and leave it sitting for six months.
He decided to buy a cheap deep freezer to put his meals in.
"I put it in the basement near the washer/dryer and put a couple of my own things in there — mostly some frozen veggies and a few burritos. I didn't really mention it to my wife because she wasn't home when I brought it in," the husband says in his post.
When his wife came home to do laundry and noticed the freezer, she ran upstairs excitedly, saying the fridge was full and she could now put more frozen food in the basement freezer. The husband retorted, saying she is not allowed to stuff that freezer and not to ask why he got it.
"She sulked and tried to debate the issue, but I was able to placate her," he says.
But, after a couple of days, he realized she had ignored his request.
"I went down to the basement to get something from my freezer, and there I found it about 70% full of microwave dinners. Upon checking the freezer in the kitchen, I found that it too was still completely full," he says.
He calmly went back upstairs to grab a large garbage bag, took all of his wife's microwave dinners, and threw them into the bag and into the trash bin.
He then found a padlock and decided to lock the basement freezer to stop his wife from stuffing the freezer again.
Later on, his wife bought more frozen food and took it downstairs to put into the freezer, but became enraged when she saw that he locked it.
"She told me I was being controlling," he said. "When I told her that there's no way she will ever use that freezer again, she threw something like a tantrum and left for her mom's house. She came back later that day and told me that I had 24 hours to unlock the freezer."
He said at the end of the 24 hours, nothing happened, but he is now wondering if he overreacted with what he did.
Everyone agreed the husband is NTA for locking his freezer.
Everyone on the subreddit agrees the husband is NTA in this situation, with some questioning that his wife may have issues and is possibly a hoarder.
One user suggested instead of throwing the food away; he should donate it to Olio, a mobile app that allows for food sharing and helps reduce food waste.
The husband said he tried to suggest this, but his wife did not take it very well.
Another individual asked if his wife grew up with food scarcity, before saying that the husband's wife should focus on something to help her because the food will not stay fresh and will go bad eventually.
They suggested a challenge to try and empty the freezer and not buy food until it is empty.
All users have agreed that the behavior is odd and that the husband's wife should talk to someone to help her deal with the issue of hoarding food.
Kurtis Condra is a writer for YourTango, based in San Francisco, California. His expertise includes pop-culture deep dives, human interest stories, and news. When not writing for YourTango, he focuses on his poetry. You can follow his poetic journey on Instagram.