Do you believe all evidence of past relationships should be left in the dust?

Read how this Redditor admitted to his wife that an old painting was from an ex. Her response was NOT what he expected!

Let’s see how it all goes down in the story below.

AITA for refusing to take down my ex gf’s painting?

Burner since my wife uses Reddit.

I (31M) and my wife (29F) are currently moving into our first real house. As we were unpacking/sorting things into different rooms yesterday, she found a painting I’ve had for years and asked what the story behind it was.

Note: I’ve had this painting displayed for as long as she knows me (it hung in our first apartment we lived in after we got married) and she never had any problem with it before.

But that was before the wife learned the source of the painting…

My college ex-girlfriend was an artist and made the painting for me a long time ago.

It’s a nice scene of a park we used to frequent when we were together and is very good craftsmanship-wise, so I kept it after we broke up.

Her reaction wasn’t as easygoing as the husband had hoped.

When I told my wife this, she got really upset and asked why I wanted a reminder of my ex-girlfriend in our house.

She said it felt gross and that if she’d known who made it, she wouldn’t have let me hang it up in our bedroom in our previous apartment.

However, he didn’t see the painting as a “big deal.”

I was surprised because I didn’t think it was a big deal. That relationship ended almost ten years ago, and I really just like the painting now.

It’s not like I think of my ex-girlfriend when I look at it. I’ve just gotten attached to it over the years because it’s been everywhere I’ve been and captures a nostalgic place I used to be fond of when I was in college.

I tried to explain this to my wife, but she didn’t want to hear it and said she felt “icky” and didn’t want it in her house.

That’s when things started to really heat up.

This then made me frustrated because it’s literally just a piece of art. In the heat of the moment, I told her she was overreacting and being dramatic and insecure.

I said that she controls most of our decor which is fine, but that I was allowed to hang my own things up, too.

She then stormed off into the other room, and we haven’t really been talking since.

AITA here?

Does Reddit think it’s ok to keep memorabilia from an ex? Let’s read the comments below to find out more.

First, Redditors noted where the painting was hung.

People also said it boiled down to two things.

Others mentioned that you don’t have to erase everything from your past.

And, finally, others noted displaying something instead of keeping it private was the issue.

Keepsakes from past relationships are allowed — but how it’s kept is everything.

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.