Wife Asks If She Was Wrong To Throw Out Husband's Dinner For Always Being Late

Aug 23, 2021 by apost team

Being in a relationship with someone means getting to know their quirks and since people are complex, sometimes various traits between partners aren't a great mix. One example is when someone is chronically late while the other person is always on time, if not early. Although seemingly a small difference, over time this can build up and cause things to get heated.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened for one couple. Writing on Reddit's Am I the A**hole subreddit, one woman recounted her story of always having to wait for her chronically late husband to begin eating dinner. She explains that she prepares the food in the house but her husband does balance this out with other chores. 

However, his chronic lateness means that despite their agreed dinner time of 6:30 pm, they don't start eating until he arrives at the table, anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes later. 

After one occasion, where the husband had specifically asked for dinner to be later at 7:30 pm, he didn't show up on time despite asking for a set time, the wife threw his dinner in the garbage out of frustration. Upon arriving at the table at 7:45 pm, the husband got upset after learning what had happened and asked what he was going to eat for dinner, to which the wife replied whatever he could make for himself. 

The husband ended up eating granola bars for dinner and slept in the spare room, and the next evening brought his own food home and hasn't spoken to his wife since, leaving her to wonder if she was in the wrong in the situation. Let's take a look at what happened.

The woman begins by explaining that while the division of labor in their house is fairly equal, "the problem is that he is chronically late for dinner." In an effort to get the problem under control, the couple agreed months earlier to eat dinner at 6:30 pm every night, but unfortunately, it hasn't helped. The woman explains:

"Every day he gets home from work at 5:30, I remind him that dinner will be ready in exactly one hour and to make sure he is ready. Every. Single. Day. he sits down at the table 10 to 20 minutes late."

Not only is he late, but he isn't realistic about his time management, yelling that he'll "be down in just a second" from the computer room, as the wife sits and watches her food get cold. She says that on some occasions she gives up and starts eating her portion when it's clear he won't be down on time, but this just causes him to become "indifferent to mildly annoyed," depending on the day. 

But things hit a peak when he texted his wife one day saying that he would be working late and dinner needed to be pushed to 7:30 pm. She was fine with it as long as he wasn't late, which he promised not to be. The husband arrived home at 6:45 pm as the wife was cooking, and at 7:20 pm she gave him a heads up that dinner would be in 10 minutes.

At 7:30 pm she put the food on the table, to which he yelled down: "Sorry, sorry! I am literally coming in one minute." But by 7:35 pm, without any sign of her husband, the wife picked up his plate and emptied it into the garbage.

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Finally, at 7:45 pm the husband came down and asked where his dinner was. After being told it's in the garbage "because he couldn't be bothered to be on time," the husband said:

"Are you f***ing serious? What am I going to eat?"

To which the wife replied, "whatever you make." The husband threw a fit and ended up eating granola bars and slept in the spare bedroom that night. The woman explains that something made her snap that day, that despite always being late, the fact he did it again on a day on which he asked for a specific dinner time was the straw that broke the camel's back.

She explains that she gets home at 5 pm each day and has little time to relax before she has to prepare dinner, while he has one hour to unwind and still leaves her waiting. The husband called his wife "petty" and that she was in the wrong for throwing out food, leading her to question who was right in the situation. 

Many of the replies to the woman's story were on her side, suggesting that she's not the a**hole. However, they did point out the situation wasn't just about throwing one plate of food away, but constant disrespect that the woman gets from her husband, who doesn't appreciate her time and effort in preparing all of their meals, as well as the precious couple time that he doesn't see as important enough to be on time for. 

The woman responded saying she has a lot to think about. Her husband came home the next day with his own takeaway meal which he ate in the spare bedroom and hasn't spoken to her since the incident.

What do you think about what happened — who was in the wrong here? Let us know your thoughts and pass it on to your friends so they can weigh in too.