Wife Throws Away Husband's Gaming Console After He Refuses To Help When Family Dog Escapes

Oct 25, 2021

Every family has its ups and downs now and then, especially when you have to handle jobs, children, pets, and whatever issues might crop up during everyday life. It's completely normal to get into arguments with your partner, especially if both of you are stressed or if something went really wrong. But what is not normal and can cause additional friction on top of that is one partner feeling ignored and left alone to deal with something.

A wife and mother of two had to deal with such a situation two years ago. She took to Reddit following a fight with her husband to describe her situation and to find out whether she had handled the argument correctly, or at least in an understandable way.

The crux of the problem was her husband's refusal to help search for the family dog, who had sadly escaped the family's property during a moment when the door was left open, and everybody else was preoccupied. The wife, already feeling pressure from having to look after two kids as well as work full time on top of that, asked her husband to help out. The husband refused and was adamant that it was not his problem, preferring to spend time playing on his gaming console.

The frustrated wife was left to handle the search for the missing family pet on her own and decided to throw out her husband's console while she was at it. A big fight ensued and the wife turned to other online commenters to find out whether she had been in the wrong in this situation.

The woman started by describing the overall situation her family found itself in. She said she was 35-years-old and a nurse and, as such, extremely busy. She often found herself working night shifts and having little time for herself. She and her husband also shared an eight-year-old son and a daughter who was only six months old. "When I am not working, I take care of my children," the mother of two wrote in her Reddit post.

Their already busy family life was complicated further by their son's wish to have a dog as a pet. "In January 2019, my son suddenly developed this strong desire to have a dog. He begged and begged for a puppy from my husband (35M). I protested against that because I had just found out that I was pregnant. Jesus," the mother wrote. Her husband thought having the puppy was a great way to teach their son some responsibility and practice for taking care of his little sibling. The wife continued arguing against taking a dog on: "I was absolutely unconvinced but I had to give in eventually because my husband had already agreed and I didn't want to cause further fights." She did, however, note that her husband had promised to help their son take care of the dog.

Fast forward to the time of the posting. After their son had accidentally left the back door of their house open, their dog had escaped. Unfortunately, the dog's escape happened at the same time as a colleague of the wife fell ill, and she had to pick up several night shifts at work.

"Our son first went to my husband for help, he refused to help him and said that it was his (my son's) responsibility to care for the [dog] and he has to do something about it himself," the tired mother wrote.

She went on to explain that her husband was a lawyer and had the luxury of working from home as well as a small number of clients at the moment, leaving him with 3-4 hours of daily work, after which he would spend all his time playing games on his gaming console. "He literally has no added pressures," she explained.

When her son told her through tears that dad wouldn't help him look for their lost dog, she went to confront her husband. "[He] said that it would teach our son some responsibility to take care of things in the future, which I found very callous since a dog is a living, sentient being and not a "thing". He was playing Xbox when I was talking to him as well. He also said he won't look for the dog or anything."

Enraged at her husband's behavior, the wife decided to take matters into her own hands and promptly threw out the gaming console after she came home from the next night shift. When she explained what she'd done to her husband, he became angry and threw a fit, rescued the console from the trash and started giving her the cold shoulder. He even complained to a mutual good friend who called the wife's reaction "incredibly childish."

Frustrated and left alone to deal with the still missing dog, the wife went ahead and phoned around the neighborhood, put up flyers and contacted Animal Control. Thankfully, in an update to her post, she explained that their dog had been returned to them. 

How would you have reacted as the wife? Do you think her reaction was justified or childish, as the friend said? Tell us what you think and pass this along to find out what your friends would have done.