Imagine a situation where your partner told you that half of your salary were to be given to them. You’d likely laugh in their face and tell them to dream on.
After all, you’re working, and you’ve earned it, so you deserve to keep money for yourself, right?
Well, when one man told his wife he was entitled to half of the income from her new job, rather than outrage, people agreed.
The pair had been married for 12 years, and have two children together – and while he goes out to work, she is a stay-at-home mum and brings up their kids. He said it was “not a setup I enforced in any respect” and he had always told his partner that he would be supportive of her if she wanted to work.
His earnings go into a joint bank account for them both to use as they wish and he said he is comfortably earning enough to support the family while she cares for the children, reports the Mirror.
When their youngest child was about to start school, the mum had spoken about going back to work – a situation they previously agreed would result in all domestic jobs being split evenly again. The mother was excited for a bit of normality, including being able to afford beauty treatments, and clothes, and she’d even spoken about building her own at-home library.
He wrote on Reddit: “I chimed in: ‘Wow you’ve got some big plans! I wonder what I’m going to do with my half?’ Her face. First, it went white with surprise and shock and then the brows furrowed and her face went red. ‘What do you mean YOUR half?’
“That’s where I argued that everything I ever made during our marriage was equally shared, and why should her money be any different?”
“She said that my paycheck was the family’s money and that her paycheck was extra money that she was earning for herself. I then told her that sure, she can work and make extra money that she can use in any way she sees fit, but then I no longer felt it fair if I took equal work of household upkeep. She went livid, called me an a**hole and a patriarchal misogynist! ? “.
After he asked on Reddit in 2020 if he was wrong, everyone backed him up. One person wrote: “She literally took the old joke ‘what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is ours’.”
Another said: “You’ve had a ‘single pot of money’ for your whole married life, that doesn’t change because now two people are contributing to it.”
Someone else tried to see both sides, saying: “You know, I kind of understand where she’s coming from, though I don’t agree with it. Even though you never viewed it as YOUR money, and it was always used as the family’s money, she probably has always felt like it really is your money.”
