Being a parent, a spouse, and an individual is tough to juggle.

This husband took to Reddit to share his story.

My (38M) work held our annual holiday party last Friday. It was held at one of those axe-throwing places which I had never done before so I figured it would be pretty fun.

My wife (36F) and I have 3 kids (10, 8, & 5) so we don’t get out of the house for dates very often. The holiday party was planned almost 2 months ago and my wife agreed to attend with me.

I suggested we make it more of a “date” by either going out for drinks after the party or catching a late-night movie.

She thought this was a good idea too. I also arranged for a babysitter to come watch the kids for that night.

The man’s wife had a bad day and couldn’t muster going to socialize.

The day of the party, my wife got home from work and told me that she had a horrible day and was in a bad space mentally so she didn’t want to come to the party.

I told her I was disappointed, but I understand if she wants to stay home.

As I was getting myself ready to head to the party, I called the babysitter and cancelled.

I apologized to her and offered to Venmo her an hours worth of our agreed rate ($30) to compensate for the cancellation and she agreed that was reasonable.

The wife was upset when she learned her husband had cancelled the sitter without checking in with her.

As I was getting ready to leave, my wife asked when the babysitter was going to come. I kind of looked at her funny and told her I had just cancelled the babysitter because she was no longer coming with me.

She got mad at me and told me that I knew she had a bad day and was in a bad mental state and needed some time to herself.

I told her that I had assumed none of that meant she was incapable of watching our kids and that I didn’t think having the babysitter come when my wife was still home made any sense at all.

She told me to call her back and see if she could still come watch the kids and I told her that if she wanted to do that she can do it, but I’m not going to.

She tried to argue with me about it, but I told her that I had to leave for the party.

While I was at the party, she sent me multiple texts about how the kids were driving her nuts and that the babysitter didn’t answer her calls and she needed me to come home.

After many ignored attempts at communication from the wife, the husband returned home to an argument.

She kept blowing up my phone and I eventually left the party over an hour early to go home.

When I got there, she kept arguing with me about how I was an AH for cancelling the babysitter when I knew she had a rough day.

I told her I was not going to pay a babysitter just so that my wife can rest after a bad day. I told her she could have just thrown a movie on for the kids and relaxed. I told her she was the one who ruined our potential night out and that having a bad day at work is not a good enough reason to pay a babysitter $150-200.

She still thinks I was an AH for cancelling the babysitter without talking to her first and she’s still mad at me for it.

But I don’t think that was an unreasonable assumption to make considering that there have been plenty of times when I’ve had a bad day and I am still 100% capable of watching the kids by myself while my wife leaves the house.

To my surprise, Reddit users heavily sided with the husband on this one.

One reader stated that the kids are old enough to entertain themselves.

This person shared in the “if you can, why can’t she?” mindset that the husband had.

And this reader called the wife insane for even suggesting keeping the babysitter.

Good luck to the husband navigating this one!

Yikes!

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.