A couple had a blowup about food on the dinner table — but it turns out their problems run a lot deeper than a dish.
A woman shared the tale of drama a few days ago on Reddit, a post that has elicited more than 12,000 reactions and nearly 3,000 comments from others.
She said she's 38, married to her husband, 42 — and together they have three young children under the age of 10.
"He’s a mechanic," she wrote, "and works anywhere from 60 to 80 hours a week, while I work as a hostess three days a week at a restaurant while the kids are at school."
The wife, who did not share her location, said she does "the majority of the housework and child care, and I don’t mind as I understand he has a hard job and works a lot. He gets the kids on the bus every morning because he leaves for work about 10 minutes afterward."
The woman added, "All I ask of him is to do his laundry, as his clothes are covered in oil and grime and need to go in by themselves."
She said she wants him "pick up after himself," too — as "the kids destroy the house enough."
She wrote that a "couple of times a week, he’ll help with dinner and cleanup at the end of the day as well."
However, things clearly then took a turn for the worse.
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"Over the last two months," the woman wrote, "he’s completely stopped helping. He dumps his clothes on the laundry room floor, his half of the bedroom is a mess, he leaves cans and wrappers all over the living room — and he’s even stopped getting the kids up, which has upset them as they love their mornings with Dad."
Added the woman, "He’s also been coming home hours later than usual."
Perhaps not seeing the writing on the wall, the woman told others, ‘I’ve been letting it slide, as he seems very stressed out, but a few days ago he snapped at me for being a ’sh--ty wife' for letting his clothes go unwashed."
She said she "reminded him that he always did his own laundry, and he hadn’t asked me to do it … He just grumbled and went to go watch TV."
Then, "last night," wrote the woman, "last night I made Chicken Alfredo. We have it about once a week because the kids love it and no one’s ever complained. Well, he b----ed and moaned through the whole dinner."
She went on, "Said that since I’m not taking care of the house, I should at least put a good meal on the table, that I’ve just been letting the whole family go to sh-- and I should be ashamed of myself for treating him and his children like that. Called me a bad wife and mother in front of our children."
She then said she told the kids "to go to their rooms and snapped. I screamed at him about how much I do for the household, that if it wasn’t for me the place would be trashed, and he has no right to treat me like this over Chicken Alfredo."
She said the two of them "went back and forth for a while before he left, and I have no idea where he went, and he isn’t answering my calls or texts."
The woman said that, upon reflection, she then felt "bad[ly], as I shouldn’t have reacted like that, especially because I know he’s just stressed from work, but it all just kind of built up and came out at once. I just want to know if I was wrong for freaking out on him like that."
In an update — and after receiving a flood of comments from others — then woman added that she "called my husband for the 100th time because he still hadn’t come home and the kids wanted to know where he was, and a woman answered."
The wife said she "didn’t recognize her voice and he doesn’t have a sister. I asked her to put me on the phone with my husband, and she asked who I was. I said I was his wife, and she laughed into the phone and told me he was busy."
Wrote the distraught wife and mother, "It’s now the next morning, and he’s still not home. I really didn’t think he was cheating."
She added, "I had really hoped this was just a rough patch, but it looks like most of you were right," she added, addressing those commenters who seemed to see what she couldn't (or chose not to) recognize.
She continued, "I’m heartbroken and a little in shock and not really sure what to do right now."
Finally, she wrote, "I might [post an] update again or I might not, but I’m sure you all know where this is heading anyway."
Fox News Digital reached out to a New York City psychologist for insight into the marriage standoff while plenty of people chimed in on social media.
Wrote one person bluntly before the woman posted her update, "I sincerely hope I'm mistaken, but your [husband] may be having an affair and setting you up to be ‘the bad wife and mother’ to justify his behavior."
Added this individual, "That's what happened to me."
Said yet another, "This, or he was fired and can’t make himself admit it."
And said still another, "Honey, he's spending $$ elsewhere ... and he is not alone when he leaves like that and comes home so late. Open your eyes. His actions are talking."
Another commenter tried to help the distraught wife: "I’m going to add the other probable option of clinical depression. He was already working long hours … and irritability and no longer doing chores can happen with depression."
Said this same commenter, "Regardless of what is going on, he doesn’t get to treat you like that, and … especially shouldn’t be doing it in front of the kids."
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The person went on, "I think you need to see if you can have someone take the kids for a night and have a talk with him. Preferably on a day he doesn’t work or just works minimum hours. Either way, this isn’t a wait-and-see situation."
A different commenter said, "This is definitely not OK. Something's going on, and he's not handling it well. I hope you find out what's up."
Yet another individual shared her own tale of woe: "Every single time my ex-husband got a new mistress, I was all of a sudden the bad wife who couldn’t do anything right."
