Without a question, being a stay-at-home parent has been the most difficult task of my life! Motherhood is one of the most essential and difficult occupations in the world. It is also one of the world’s most under-appreciated jobs. Read this great tale of how one daughter sought to teach her father a lesson for undervaluing her stay-at-home mother.
Source: Reddit
My f16 father m46 is the “breadwinner” while mom is a SAHM. She handles everything around the house like cooking, mopping, washing, laundry, etc. I’m the oldest and I try to help but really there’s only so much I can do while my dad just gets home at the end of the day and literally complains about everything. like how the carpet isn’t clean or how the food is cold.
As a result; I’d have to listen to a huge argument daily between him and mom. It’s exhausting but honestly…I think that my dad is in the wrong here. I tried talking to him to get him to see how his behavior is but to no avail.
So what I did was pick a day off for him and pretend to act like him. I put together an outfit that looked like a suit and put black tape over my lips to look like a mustache. at 6pm. I went inside the house. Shouted “I’M HOME!!” then sat next to him in the living room and started kicking my shoes while complaining about the state of the house at the top of my lungs. He glanced at me confused asking what I was doing. I ignored him then started yelling about the carpet being dirty, shower not ready, the kids needing to be quiet and so on.
He kept staring while mom and my siblings laughed. My youngest brother kept pointing towards me saying “this is daddy”. I then proceeded to yell about dinner then berated my mom for not preparing it before time. My dad stopped me and in a serious tone asked what I was doing. I turned to him and said “WHAT?! CAN’T A MAN EFFING REST AFTER WORKING LONG HOURS!!” in the most macho voice I could muster. My dad got the hint because this was the common phrase he uses daily. He went quiet and avoided looking at me. I stopped the act and told him I was trying to show him what he’s like everyday when he comes home from work. He said nothing, just went outside and refused to speak to me.
Later he went on about how I “mocked” and invalidated him. That he does work hard and me doing this was disrespectful and invalidating. Mom said it was funny but also thought I hurt my dad’s feelings and I could’ve gotten the message across some other way instead. Did i go too far here?
Here are a few comments on the story where it was originally posted:
