1 month ago
27
1. "When we got married, the plan was that I would be a SAHD (stay-at-home-dad) and she would work because she was a very type-A extrovert and loved her job. We did that for a year, where I took care of the kid and she worked. When the second was born, she said she wanted to take some time off work and focus on being a parent. She would return to work when the kids were in school. No problem! I went back to work full time. Fast-forward a few years, and the kids are in school. I keep asking her when she plans on going back, and she keeps brushing me off. Finances were tight, and she had expensive tastes. After asking many times, she finally says, 'I’m retired now. I sacrificed my body to have kids, so I don’t ever have to work again.'"
"That was the final straw. We already had a terrible relationship with no emotional or physical connection. I was doing all the cooking, cleaning, and childcare while working full time, and she was mostly at restaurants or shopping with her friends."
2. "Every Saturday, I ran a few miles around the neighborhood. On the way back home, I would stop by a cafe close to our house. I’d get her her favorite pastry and a matcha. Most days, she would eat the pastry literally in bed. We were having a lot of little arguments and openly discussing divorce. One day, she sends me a TikTok of a woman who is served breakfast in bed. When I told her I literally do that, she thought about it, started laughing, then said, 'Oh, yeah.' It could have been a cute moment, but it kind of broke me. Something in me just broke."
3. "I was working 45 hours M–F and taking tech classes every weekend to provide for the fam. I couldn’t take the time off to go on vacation, so my wife went with her parents and our kids out of town for a week. No biggie. Unfortunately, I found her journal under the mattress while making the bed one morning. She had detailed multiple evenings that she had gone to see one of my friends, John, who managed a bar we frequented. She had tried, apparently unsuccessfully, to cheat on me with him. Multiple times. This broke me. We had been together for seven years. We had two kids, and I thought we loved each other."
"Her and the kids returned, but I didn’t mention it. I sleepwalked through life for a while.
Then one morning before work, as I’m getting dressed, she says, 'Hey, I was thinking that we should go see your friend John for a couple of drinks after you get off work.'
Yep. That did it. Snap.
I told her, 'I have a better idea. How about if you go by yourself?! You’ve done it before. I found your journal. I want a divorce.'
I left her crying in bed and went down to the kitchen to grab a bowl of cereal."
4. "The last straw was the third time I cashed out a 401(k) to save the house from foreclosure. She would not live within our means."
5. "She wouldn’t take me to the hospital. I broke my leg skateboarding and immediately knew something was wrong. I hobbled over to my car and made it home. I literally crawled in the front door, and she said, 'OMG, what happened?' I said, 'I think I just broke my leg. Can you take me to the ER?' She said, 'Well, tonight’s actually not good for me. See, I have plans with some old friends from work, and then my aunt Cathy is in town from Boston, and I only see her, like, once a year…'"
6. "It was over the day I realized that we had too much in common. I liked women, and she liked women, which she proved to me when I caught her making out on my living room couch with another woman."
7. "She insisted I buy her a high-end sports car. I objected and bought her the next model down. Finished at the dealership. As she was about to drive off, she said, 'This is what I wanted all the time, but I knew you wouldn’t go for it. So I pushed for the more expensive one.'"
8. "She didn't want to pick me up from the airport. It wasn't even the big things, like she wanted to sleep with other men. The fact that she couldn't do a simple thing to support me was what broke me."
9. "The final straw was her telling me that we had to find another house for the pets that I have had since their birth. I told her I’d rather find another house for her."
10. "It was over when she said she was done caring what she looked like and that I shouldn't care either. My new wife is a smokeshow, and we work out and eat healthy together."
11. "The final straw was her going out with her sister to an 'outdoor get-together' during COVID and leaving me at home to do a Zoom memorial with my family. My grandmother died from COVID complications, and my wife said I should have my privacy with my family."
12. "She would give me one present a year, $60 max, that was supposed to be for my birthday, Christmas, and anniversary. She never thought more of me, or enough of me, to even try for more."
13. "She strung me along for a few years to wait to have kids. She finally admitted she did not want children, and she couldn't stand being around little kids. That was not just a deal breaker. She became unattractive to me in a split second."
14. And finally, "The final straw was when she told me she didn't consider my brother and his family as part of her family. After all the crap I graciously did for her family for over 20 years, that was it. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I moved out a few months later and never, ever looked back. I didn't even shed a tear, not one. Now I'm happily, happily married to the sweetest woman in the world."
Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
English (US) 