This dad was already juggling a chaotic evening: one kid throwing up, one struggling through math homework, and one chiming in with an actually correct answer at the worst possible moment.

When his wife, frustrated and overwhelmed, told their 13-year-old to “shut up” during the chaos, the tension didn’t end with homework.

After comforting their son and checking in with his wife, he gently asked her to apologize. But when she refused, insisting she’d been interrupted, the conversation took a sharp turn.

AITAH for telling my wife that I will lose respect for her if she doesn’t apologize?

My wife and I have three kids. Thursday my wife was helping our nine year old with her homework. She was supposed to fill in a chart with the times tables.

That was a hectic day. Our four year old threw up, and I was trying to clean him up, and my wife was having trouble getting our nine year old to focus on what she was doing because she kept looking at me. Our nine year old hates math and is pretty bad at it, which annoys my wife who is usually fantastic at math.

My wife asked our daughter was seven times seven was. Our daughter said she didn’t know. My wife kept telling her to try to think of any answer. She kept saying she didn’t know. My wife was getting frustrated. Our daughter finally guessed 37. My wife said “close, 47.”

All right…

Our thirteen year old then said “no mom, it’s 49.” My wife snapped at that point and told him to shut up and go upstairs. He went into the backyard instead.

She took a deep breath and then went into our room. I finished with our four year old and then went outside. I tried to talk to him, but he didn’t want to listen.

He kept saying “but dad, seven times seven is 49.” I told him his mom just got frustrated and didn’t mean to yell at him. He kept insisting that seven times seven in 49 (which I am aware of), so I got nowhere.

How frustrating.

I went back inside to talk to my wife. She said she knew she shouldn’t have yelled. She said she was frustrated because he was distracting her, and that’s why she made the mistake.

I pointed out that she made the mistake before he said anything. She started crying and asked why I was being so critical. I apologized and told her I loved her.

We hugged it out, but then I asked her if she was going to go and apologize to our 13 year old. She said no, because he shouldn’t have interrupted her. She said he was rude and needed to learn not to interrupt.

Sure…

I told her it’s not okay to tell him to shut up. We went back and forth, and finally I said I won’t be able to respect her as much if she doesn’t apologize.

That really hurt her. She said she needed space. She hasn’t said a word to me or him since Thursday. I know that what I said is harsh, but I can’t respect someone who won’t apologize when they make a mistake.

AITA? My sister says I am because I’m not being supportive and our 13yo is “a lot.”

So he’s asking Reddit whether holding the line on apologies makes him unreasonable…or simply trying to keep the family grounded.

Reddit says the husband is fine…but the wife? CHILDISH.

This person says to apologize on her behalf.

But this person says it’s almost like a form of abuse.

In a house full of multiplication mistakes, the biggest miscalculation might have been how he delivered the truth.

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.