Wife Tells Husband He Needs To Give Her Half Of His Company If He Wants Her To Be A Stay-At-Home Mom So He’ll Be ‘Less Stressed’
After her husband asked her to give up her career, she offered him a unique compromise.
Srdjan Randjelovic | Shutterstock A woman said she attempted to compromise with her husband after he insisted she become a stay-at-home mother while he continued working.
Posting to the subreddit r/AITAH, the 35-year-old woman revealed that she was only going to agree to give up her career if it meant that her husband had to make the same sacrifice.
She asked her husband for half of his company if he wanted her to be a stay-at-home mom so he would be 'less stressed.'
In her Reddit post, she explained that she and her husband have been married for the last six years and share two children together with another one on the way. Her husband recently expressed his desire for her to become a "housewife" and stop working so she could take care of their children and all the household responsibilities.
"I was very disturbed by that but he explained that it was better for our family and children since he can afford [a] very good living," she wrote.
AITAH | Reddit
The decision to become a stay-at-home mother and give up a career is a difficult one, and it shouldn't be decided by anyone else but the person who will be affected by it, which, in this case, is this woman.
He can't force her into making that choice, and she should be allowed to voice her feelings about his request.
According to Motherly's 2023 State of Motherhood report, which surveyed 10,000 American mothers, the state of motherhood is rather grim. Twenty-five percent of moms are holding down their forts now, compared to 15% in 2022, while 18% of moms changed jobs or left the workforce in the past year. Of those, 28% said they did so to be home with young kids, but 15% stayed home due to a lack of childcare.
She told her husband that if he wanted her to make such a drastic change in her life, then she would need to get at least half of his company.
At first, surprised, he questioned why, but she explained that the longer she stayed at home, the harder it would be for her to get a well-paying job if they were to divorce.
Hananeko_Studio | Shutterstock
"I want half of the company. If we never divorce, which is the goal of all marriages, then it wouldn’t matter, but should it end, it would be the price of me staying home and raising our children so he could be less worried and stressed out," she wrote.
Her husband even admitted that he would be "less stressed" if he knew his wife was taking care of their children compared to childcare employees.
It's getting harder and harder for parents to afford childcare as it is.
According to Care.com's 2023 Cost of Care report families are spending, on average, 27% of their household income on childcare expenses. And 59% of parents surveyed said they were planning to spend more than $18,000 per child on child care in 2023.
While this woman and her husband's situation doesn't seem to involve spending money on childcare, but rather her husband's own feelings, it does highlight the disparity between other families.
Childcare facilities are also struggling, according to a July 2021 report from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which found that four in five child-care centers in the U.S. were understaffed. Roughly 8 of 10 respondents cited low wages as the main obstacle to recruiting educators, while 81% said insufficient pay is the main reason educators leave the field.
BearFotos | Shutterstock
Similarly, more than a third of child-care providers said they are considering quitting or closing down their businesses within the next year. It's getting harder for parents to afford childcare, and the accompanying decision between parents for one of them to become a stay-at-home parent isn't something that can easily be decided.
From this Redditor's perspective, asking her husband for a bit of financial security in exchange for giving up her career to become a stay-at-home mom is understandable.
She obviously doesn't want to think about divorce, but she also has to be realistic because it's true that once she's out of the workforce for the next several years, it'll be hard if she chooses down the line to enter it again. Since her husband also has enough money to support him and their family, then it shouldn't be that big of a deal anyway.
People in the comments agreed that she wasn't being unrealistic by asking her husband for half of his company, and it sounded like a reasonable compromise for having to upheave her entire life for the sake of their family.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.