June 5, 2026 at 9:55 am

A Man’s Wife Ran Out of Gas and Got Stranded, but He Wouldn’t Leave Work Because of His Meetings

by Matthew Gilligan

Shutterstock

Well, this is certainly an interesting situation!

If your significant other asked you to drop everything at work to help them out, what would you do?

Well, there are certainly a lot of factors to consider…

Was there immediate danger?

What time of day was it?

The possibilities are endless!

The guy who wrote this story stood his ground and didn’t leave his job when his wife’s car ran out of gas.

Check out what he had to say and see if you think he did the right thing.

AITA for not leaving work to help my wife when she ran out of gas?

“My wife (38F) and I (41M) have been married for 11 years and have 2 kids (9 & 7).

I work full-time and she works part-time while also doing online classes to finish her degree (she dropped out of college after 2 years and wants to finish).

This sounds pretty tough…

She has ADHD and anxiety and, if I’m being honest, sometimes it feels like our entire lives revolve around her symptoms.

Last Friday my wife didn’t have to work and decided to go visit her sister who lives in a small town about 45-minutes away. She didn’t tell me she was going so I was very surprised when she called me shortly after noon.

She was obviously upset when I answered and between sobs I was able to make out that there was an issue with the car. Eventually, she calmed down and told me that she ran out of gas “in the middle of nowhere” and didn’t know what to do.

Don’t you just love it when you don’t get the whole story…?

Because she hadn’t told me she was visiting her sister, I was very confused and had a lot of questions which only made her more upset. I was getting frustrated too so I finally just asked her what she wanted me to do.

She told me she needed me to come help her. I told her I was at work and had meetings in the afternoon that I couldn’t skip.

I suggested she call her sister, but she went to work after my wife visited and my wife didn’t want to bother her. I suggested she call AAA to come help but she said she didn’t know how to do that.

I suggested she call an Uber but she was in the middle of nowhere and didn’t show any cars available. I suggested she call a friend or someone else that might be able to help and she yelled at me to “Just come help her.”

She sounds pretty helpless, if we’re being honest…

I tried to remain calm and reiterated that I am sorry she’s in this position but at this moment I am unable to help her. I told her I had offered numerous suggestions that she could try to help herself but I can’t leave work.

She then hung up on me. My first meeting of the afternoon was starting in 5 minutes so I tried calling her back and she didn’t answer. I kept trying to text her during my meeting too but she never responded.

I tried calling again between my meeting and still no answer. Which I admit made me mad because even if I was trying to come help at that point I couldn’t reach her.

She is the one who picks up our kids from school so I was kind of freaking out at this point because I was completely in the dark about whether I would need to get them or if my wife was okay.

And a bit manipulative…

So, I called the school and asked them to please let me know if my wife comes to get the kids because I can’t reach her. I didn’t include any details about why. The school called me back at pick-up time and told me that my wife was there for pickup.

When I got home at the end of the day, my wife refused to talk to me. She gave me the cold shoulder the entire weekend. I apologized for not being able to help multiple times. Finally, this morning she spoke to me but all she said was “I can’t count on you anymore.”

Did I really mess up that bad?

Am I the jerk for this?”

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a sister who canceled a family dinner after realizing she’d been the only one putting in effort for years.

Here’s what readers had to say about this.