In today’s story, a wife and mom goes on a girls trip, and her husband decides to do some home repair projects while she’s out of town.

The problem is that he doesn’t finish everything on the to-do list.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

AITA – For not “fully” completing projects while my wife was gone for a ladies weekend

My wife told me approx 10 days ago that she was planning on going on a “wives” trip to NYC for an extended weekend, and wanted to know if I was OK to watch our two boys.

I told her not a problem, I know how hard she works as a stay at home mom. I wanted to give her a chance to get some R&R, and I knew that I would also get important stuff done.

She left on Friday, and I dropped my boys off with my parents so I could catch up on projects.

OP gave himself the first night as a break.

I took Friday evening off, as it was the first time I’d been truly alone in months.

Drank some beer, ate pizza (made the way I like it, as I usually buy what the wife and kids prefer) and caught up on my favorite TV shows.

I crashed early, and woke up Saturday ready to work.

OP made a to-do list.

I made myself a list of things I wanted done:

fix the kitchen drawer (broken for 3 months)

fix all the 5 loose curtains rods (2 boys do a number of curtains screwed into drywall)

clean my half of the garage which is my workshop.

get caught up on all laundry (wash, dry and fold) nearly 5 loads!

finish my youngest sons room, I needed to shiplap one wall, fill the holes and prime it.

OP injured his back before he was done with his work.

I got through the first four items on my list, but as I was finishing the last of the curtain rods, I tweaked my back. No clue how, I must have twisted wrong or something silly.

I called it a night, and picked the kids up the following morning.

Got them home and they asked if the could play their tablets. I saw a golden opportunity, I could finish my youngest sons room while they play!

OP had to admit defeat due to his back.

I got to it, until I had two cuts left, the bottom row.

I went into my workshop to setup my table saw, and when I went to lift it, I aggravated my back injury from the day before and threw my back out. — if you’ve never thrown your back out, it is one of the most painful things you can do

I called it a day, turned on football and waited for my wife to come home.

His wife didn’t react the way he expected.

She gets home, I slowly get up, and explain to her what I’d been up to while she was gone. I showed her the things I fixed, and progress on my son’s room.

I was expecting a boat load of appreciation.

Instead my wife looked super upset and walked out of the room.

His wife didn’t appreciate his work.

I followed her and asked why she was upset.

She said that if I was going to do all this work, I should have known to do our sons room first, and everything else later.

I honestly told her I was expecting some appreciation that I had spent my weekend off catching up on all these tasks that had accumulated.

Her response, in the most sarcastic and insincere tone: “thank you… i guess.”

His wife didn’t help with the kids even though he was in pain.

She then told me she was taking a break, and I needed to handle dinner.

I explained to her I was in significant pain, and needed to lie down, and she just walked away.

I ended up doing dinner, two baths, and bedtime solo.

His wife is still mad at him.

I tried talking to her today about everything, and her response was:

it’s your fault you got hurt

You should have managed your time better

She deserved a break after being in the car for hours, so she took one.

AITA?

His wife should’ve told him ahead of time if the son’s room was the top priority. Husbands aren’t mind readers.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story…

This reader doesn’t think OP should’ve expected his wife to appreciate his hard work.

Another reader thinks both parents “deserve a break.”

This person points out why OP took a break.

This reader blames the wife’s “expectations.”

Next time, his wife should let him know ahead of time if there’s a top priority on the to-do list.

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.