Every parent has their days when they’re a little less than pleasant with their family.
Whether its a stressful day at work, sitting in hours of traffic, or coming home to a messy house, I’m sure we’ve all seen our parents near their breaking point at one point in our lives.
Its days like that you know not to push your luck. You don’t ask for McDonalds on the way home, or beg your Mom to let your friend come over for dinner.
But this user’s story takes that to a whole other level, with his wife’s temper being so bad that he actually started a group chat to warn his family on the days she was in a bad mood!
Check it out!
AITA for sending out “Bad Day Alerts” to my family whenever my wife is having a bad day?
I’m a father of 3 boys from ages 12 to 17 and a husband of one woman. My wife is an amazing woman with very few flaws.
One of these again few flaws is her anger. When she’s not happy, she has a habit of kinda making everyone else’s days worse.
For example, if she has a bad day at work, I know it’s likely that I’ll get fussed at for something she usually doesn’t care about.
For my boys, I know it’s rough as they really don’t want to argue with their mother.
On previous bad days, my wife has went off and overboard on our kids for small things such leaving the toilet seat up or leaving a paper plate out.
And OP found a sneaky way to update his boys on their mother’s emotional state.
To combat this, I made a group chat with all the boys that we call, “Bad Day Alert”. It works like this:
If one of us notices that my wife is not exactly having a good day and will make it our problem, we will simply text “BAD DAY” into the chat so the others can prepare.
We also use it for just quick guy talk but its main purpose is to warn in case of a bad day.
OP said their system worked great, and even let him and the boys work on curbing his wife’s anger.
When we get a Bad Day alert, we do what we can to ensure that no one gets in trouble.
It also gives me time to prepare to cook or pick up a dinner she really loves and take care of any chores that are typically hers.
That way she’s able to come home and just decompress from the bad day without lashing out at any of us.
But when his wife’s sister came to visit, their alert system was soon discovered.
My wife prior to recently was not aware of it. She did however find out. My sister-in-law recently moved in temporarily and my wife had a bad day.
My oldest son notified the rest of us. Our youngest son thought it would be smart to notify his aunt (he was right to do so, I just hadn’t thought about her).
She questioned him about everything, and he spilled the beans. My sister-in-law told my wife and now she’s mad at me.
She says it’s wrong of me to do that because I’m essentially teaching our kids to treat her like an angry child. I protested that it was beneficial for all of us but she refused to hear it.
I really think I was doing a good thing for all by starting this. AITA?
Regardless of the group chat, isn’t the bigger problem his wife’s serious anger issues? Anger issues so bad the rest of the family needs a warning not to interact with her!
Reddit agreed, saying OP needed to talk to his wife about her anger for the sake of their kids.
And this user shared the effects that this type of household can have on a kid.
This user said OP’s story was much like her own family growing up, and shared how the long-term consequences of their upbringing.
Another user who grew up in a similar dynamic even said it primed her for entering an abusive relationship.
And finally, this user said OP’s story even explained some of her husband’s anxiety in light of his family.
OP you need to get your kids out of there before it’s too late!
You and them both deserve better!
If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.