Wife Gives Her Husband The Ultimatum Of Becoming A Househusband Or Getting A Divorce
He chose househusband, although it sounded like he might have wanted to choose something else.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock Some families are able to make life work on a single income. In a statistical majority of these families, the mom stays home with the kids and takes care of things around the house. However, in some, it is the dad who stays home.
One thing that almost never works out is one parent doing absolutely nothing while the other does everything. But, that’s exactly what one dad wanted.
One mom became so frustrated with her husband’s lack of effort that she gave him a startling ultimatum.
A mom posted on Reddit asking for advice after sharing what her family had gone through since her husband lost his job.
“Long story short, my husband … used to work to support the family while I … stayed home taking care of our two-year-old daughter,” she explained. “Last month, he lost his job and told me he felt exhausted and wasn’t eager to do anything.”
It’s certainly understandable that someone might feel like they need some time to breathe and figure out what their next steps are after being laid off. But it didn’t end there.
“I said okay and offered to work so he could look after our daughter at home and get some rest until he feels better,” she said. “By the way, our daughter goes to daycare, so it’s mainly some housework and picking her up.”
On the surface, this sounded like a great offer from the wife. The husband would not be responsible for any real childcare except picking his daughter up from daycare. Other than that, his only responsibility would be housework. It didn’t sit well with him, though.
“But he said no, he needs his time to be completely free,” she shared. “I got furious because this means either I work while also taking care of our daughter, or our family will face significant financial pressure.”
Even though it seemed like her husband was being unreasonable at this point, this wife decided to give him the break he claimed to need.
“But I stepped back anyway and had a [expletive] of a month doing everything while he hung out with his friends and played PS5,” she stated.
After a month of doing everything on her own, this wife was done being so generous.
“Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and tol
d him he had to choose between being a househusband or divorce. He chose the first, but it felt forced,” she said.
A househusband is essentially a stay-at-home dad.
The term “househusband” is gaining popularity to describe the opposite of a housewife.
According to Merriam-Webster, the official definition is “a man who does housekeeping usually while his spouse or partner earns the family income.”
Although the numbers are low in comparison to stay-at-home moms, stay-at-home dads are becoming increasingly common. Data from the Pew Research Center showed, “Between 1989 and 2021, the share of mothers who were not employed for pay decreased slightly, from 28% to 26%. Over the same span, the share of fathers who were not working increased from 4% to 7%.”
According to this data, more mothers entered the workforce, while more fathers chose to stay home. While the difference in numbers might not be huge, it is certainly significant given just how few dads have historically stayed home.
“Due to these diverging trends, dads now represent 18% of stay-at-home parents, up from 11% in 1989,” Pew Research Center said.
So, becoming a househusband, stay-at-home dad, or whatever your preferred terminology has become more popular.
It certainly seems like a preferable outcome to divorce. However, the ultimate choice here is up to this man. Would he really consider divorce to get out of doing housework? And what happens when he finds out that he still has to do housework even if he is on his own?
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.