“Finally Snapped”: Woman Can’t Handle Husband’s Incompetence, Stops Taking Care Of Him
Traditional gender roles often portray women as the primary nurturers. And based on a belief many consider outdated, wives are expected to take care of their husbands, who, in turn, are expected to provide for the family.
Such arrangements can be problematic, especially when the woman begins to coddle her man to the point where he relies on her for literally everything. It’s the exact story you’re about to read, where the lady described her spouse as a “preschooler who suddenly stops because he sees an interesting rock.”
Scroll through to read the entire text and see how this unfolded.
Women are known to be the nurturers of the family
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
But between this couple, the wife realized she had been coddling her husband
Image credits: cookie_studio / freepik (not the actual photo)
She shared exact instances when her man couldn’t seem to function without her doing the most basic things for him
Image credits: freepik (not the actual photo)
The woman finally snapped and saw the cracks in their relationship
Image credits: anon
Many who allow themselves to be “mothered” by their wives are rooted in their learned roles
There is no question that the husband should man up and carry his end of the couch, so to speak. His wife, after all, is not his mother or caretaker, and continuing the cycle would only do more harm to their relationship.
However, part of his behavior is also due to the learned roles between men and women. As psychotherapist William Berry explains, it all goes back to the mother-child dynamic, in which the mother takes on the day-to-day caregiving responsibilities, such as making doctor appointments, cooking, and checking to ensure everything is running smoothly.
Fathers, on the other hand, are associated with play. And as Berry noted, it’s a trait he may embody as he enters relationships with women. According to him, the same mother-child dynamic may repeat, even through marriage.
“(Wives) may encourage less play (hanging out with friends, heavy drinking) and behave in a more grown-up fashion,” Berry wrote, adding that many men may express discontent over how their significant others “had fun” before marriage, then suddenly took on the adult role after tying the knot.
Berry says throwing blame may not help, as he encourages focusing on having a clear understanding of the roots of their behaviors, then addressing them with compassion and dialogue. Mom blogger Mellissa Edgington shared a similar sentiment, along with actionable tips to address such a problem.
“Tell him that you are worried that he feels you treat him like a child, and that’s the very last way you want him to feel because you respect and honor him as the love of your life,” she wrote.
However, the woman had grown fed up with her husband’s refusal to “adult up,” which is understandable. At that point, her other option was to put her foot down and set boundaries, which is another way to handle the situation.
People lauded the woman for how she handled the situation
Others shared similar experiences
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When people say relationships are work, this is what they mean. You have to reflect on patterns of behaviour and keep yourself honest and communicate what you want and need to your partner as well as what's already good. That vigilance takes work and takes practice it's easy to default to bad habits.
Men pull this stuff thinking they're getting away with doing the boring things they don't want to do. What it's actually doiing is proving to your wife/girlfriend that she's dating a teenage boy and I 100% guarantee you that she'll check out of the relationship. No sane adult woman wants to be intimate with a "man" who has behaved like a child all day
In our relationship we try to share as much as possible . I admit to doing less, because I'm not good at a lot of things, but anything my partner doesn't like doing, I'll make an extra effort to do instead. It should be about sharing responsibility. As OP admits, she hadn't forced that, and she needed to. I'd love to se an update .
My ma said she never had to worry about me and relationships because I attract good people, and the more Reddit I read, the more I realize she was right. I’ve NEVER dealt with a man like this; they always took care of themselves and I took care of myself. (I sometimes wonder, though, whether age was a factor, as I’ve never dated a man older than 12-20 years younger than me.) But the women? They’re all over the place, and this one reminded me of a girl I dated who was 35 and getting out of a seven-year marriage to a man when she decided she was a lesbian after all. She asked me whether it was alright with me if she “expressed her masculine side” with me (she wanted to dress, walk, wear her hair, and “talk” like a man, though that last one sure was spotty!), and I agreed wholeheartedly and kept my reservations to herself. Ironically, she complained about her ex-husband being like the thoughtless jerks in this article,
I'm surprised by the downvotes. My current relationship is ALL about appreciation . We are both recently from relationships where we were not appreciated for several reasons. We now both take an effort to express oir appreciation, even for little things. It is very uplifting.
Load More Replies...I don't know if this is really a gender issue. This sounds like a very specific issue for this dude. It seems more of a some people are organized and punctual and some people are not.
Of the 3 major relationships I've had in my life, 2 of them were exactly like this (the one who wasn't cheated on me, so there you go). I'm now determined to die a happy dog spinster. 👍
Crystal, when are you going to get it through your thick skull that not everything is the parents' fault?
I flinched when I read that because that's my name IRL XD I keep forgetting! (and yes, it bothers me a little that she and I "share" a name, lol.)
Load More Replies...I'll toss a little chum into the water: I'm a husband, and my wife does far more of the mental work than I do. But...it's because that work was taken away from me. When we first married, we combined finances (whatever works for you is fine; this is what works for us). I had a meticulous system for keeping track of bills, so I offered to continue doing so. No secrets, just spreadsheets and a place for receipts. Sometime during year two, I noticed she was doing it, too. I asked why. Was I doing it wrong? No. Was I being withholding? No. She just wasn't going to be confident about money if she wasn't adding things up. So, I told her it could be her thing, and I'd find something else. No sense in both of us doing it. That played out again and again. Listen: I'm very self-sufficient, but she's a touch neurotic. Why duplicate the labor? I trust her.
People in other than hetero relationships have often put more thought into gender roles. Once you start deconstructing s****l prejudices it's not that far out of the way to take a hard look at the rest of societal norms.
Load More Replies...When people say relationships are work, this is what they mean. You have to reflect on patterns of behaviour and keep yourself honest and communicate what you want and need to your partner as well as what's already good. That vigilance takes work and takes practice it's easy to default to bad habits.
Men pull this stuff thinking they're getting away with doing the boring things they don't want to do. What it's actually doiing is proving to your wife/girlfriend that she's dating a teenage boy and I 100% guarantee you that she'll check out of the relationship. No sane adult woman wants to be intimate with a "man" who has behaved like a child all day
In our relationship we try to share as much as possible . I admit to doing less, because I'm not good at a lot of things, but anything my partner doesn't like doing, I'll make an extra effort to do instead. It should be about sharing responsibility. As OP admits, she hadn't forced that, and she needed to. I'd love to se an update .
My ma said she never had to worry about me and relationships because I attract good people, and the more Reddit I read, the more I realize she was right. I’ve NEVER dealt with a man like this; they always took care of themselves and I took care of myself. (I sometimes wonder, though, whether age was a factor, as I’ve never dated a man older than 12-20 years younger than me.) But the women? They’re all over the place, and this one reminded me of a girl I dated who was 35 and getting out of a seven-year marriage to a man when she decided she was a lesbian after all. She asked me whether it was alright with me if she “expressed her masculine side” with me (she wanted to dress, walk, wear her hair, and “talk” like a man, though that last one sure was spotty!), and I agreed wholeheartedly and kept my reservations to herself. Ironically, she complained about her ex-husband being like the thoughtless jerks in this article,
I'm surprised by the downvotes. My current relationship is ALL about appreciation . We are both recently from relationships where we were not appreciated for several reasons. We now both take an effort to express oir appreciation, even for little things. It is very uplifting.
Load More Replies...I don't know if this is really a gender issue. This sounds like a very specific issue for this dude. It seems more of a some people are organized and punctual and some people are not.
Of the 3 major relationships I've had in my life, 2 of them were exactly like this (the one who wasn't cheated on me, so there you go). I'm now determined to die a happy dog spinster. 👍
Crystal, when are you going to get it through your thick skull that not everything is the parents' fault?
I flinched when I read that because that's my name IRL XD I keep forgetting! (and yes, it bothers me a little that she and I "share" a name, lol.)
Load More Replies...I'll toss a little chum into the water: I'm a husband, and my wife does far more of the mental work than I do. But...it's because that work was taken away from me. When we first married, we combined finances (whatever works for you is fine; this is what works for us). I had a meticulous system for keeping track of bills, so I offered to continue doing so. No secrets, just spreadsheets and a place for receipts. Sometime during year two, I noticed she was doing it, too. I asked why. Was I doing it wrong? No. Was I being withholding? No. She just wasn't going to be confident about money if she wasn't adding things up. So, I told her it could be her thing, and I'd find something else. No sense in both of us doing it. That played out again and again. Listen: I'm very self-sufficient, but she's a touch neurotic. Why duplicate the labor? I trust her.
People in other than hetero relationships have often put more thought into gender roles. Once you start deconstructing s****l prejudices it's not that far out of the way to take a hard look at the rest of societal norms.
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