Husband Cancels Wife's Streaming Services And Tells Her To Get A Job To Pay For It Herself

Sep 29, 2021 by apost team

Getting married and starting a family are pretty monumental occasions in a person’s life. While there is plenty of excitement circulating around these moments, it’s also important to factor in what life will really be like following them. For some couples, they choose to both work and use their incomes for typical expenses, as well as putting some into a savings account. On the other hand, some couples decide that one person will be the one who works while the other stays home to work on the house and take care of the kids.

A man went to Reddit on Sept. 20, 2021, to talk about the grievances he was having regarding his home situation and to ask Reddit users for advice. When he and his wife first got married, they had both been working full time jobs and both brought home an income. However, his wife was absolutely miserable at her job and woke up devastated every single morning. He eventually agreed that it would be a good idea for his wife to quit her job, but problems soon arose afterward.

While the husband thought his wife would simply find another job, she decided to take some time away from work to be a stay-at-home mother and a housewife. The issue was that the husband didn’t make enough money to support his family on his income alone. The family needed more money, so the husband cancelled his wife’s streaming service accounts and told her to get a job if she wanted to get them back, hoping to encourage her to get back into the work field.

At the beginning of his Reddit post, the original poster (OP) explained that he and his wife have been married for almost five years and have two children together, a 3-year-old boy and a 1.5-year-old daughter. When the couple first got married, they both had jobs, but OP’s wife decided to quit hers about a year later. “She told me that her boss was treating her like garbage and that she woke up every morning wanting to vomit,” he explained. 

OP agreed that she should quit and he encouraged her to find a new job where she would be treated better. “I expected her to go out and start looking for something else but she didn’t seem too eager,” OP said. “Whenever I gently brought it up she responded, ‘I’m just trying to figure out my next move. Stop pressuring me.’” Shortly after this, his wife got pregnant with their first child, and she got pregnant again soon after that. 

After their second child was born, OP questioned his wife about what her plans were work-wise, but she figured that she could just be a housewife and a stay-at-home mother and survive on OP’s income alone. “I told her that I was concerned that I don’t actually make enough to give our family as good of a life as I’d like but she insisted that we can make it work,” OP said. OP admitted that his wife did a great job as a homemaker and mom; the house was always clean, there was always food ready for him and his wife was great with the kids. 

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“However, money is WAY tighter than I’d like,” he said. He explained that they were “living lean,” eating rice and beans for dinner a few times each week and barely putting any money toward a savings account. “I don’t feel as if I signed up for this,” OP continued. He tried convincing his wife to get a part-time job, but she just didn’t want to work.

While going through their expenses and seeing what they could cut back on, OP realized that they were signed up for five different streaming services. He kept three of them but canceled the other two without telling his wife ahead of time, causing her to become extremely upset with him. OP told her, “Well, get a job and you can pay for them then.” He has since reflected and realized that it might not have been fair to wave the fact that he’s the only one with an income in her face, but he still needed help money-wise.

The majority of Reddit users agreed he wasn’t wrong for his actions, but he should consider just how much work being a stay-at-home mom is and how expensive hiring a babysitter would be. One user commented, “Keep in mind childcare is expensive. If she goes to work chances are one salary will be eaten up by childcare.” 

Another user said, “Cancelling some streaming services if you’re struggling to budget is a perfectly sensible thing to do, but the way they went about it comes across as a petty ‘punishment.’ If they keep this kind of attitude up, he’ll resent her for being ‘lazy’ and she’ll resent him for being ‘controlling’ and the whole thing will fall apart.” 

Do you think this husband was right to cancel his wife’s streaming services to encourage her to get a job? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your family members and friends, too.