Reddit Stories - DRAMATIC DECISION_ Finally Seeking Freedom from My SHAMEFUL Spouse's Dining Room Betrayal_

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #dramaticdecision #seekingfreedom #shamefulspouse #diningroombetrayal #relationshipsSummary: In a dramatic turn of events, after enduring a shameful betrayal in the dining room by their spouse, a person seeks freedom by making a life-changing decision.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, dramaticdecision, seekingfreedom, shamefulspouse, diningroombetrayal, relationships, betrayal, marriage, decisionmaking, personalgrowth, relationshipadvice, familydrama, forgiveness, movingon, selfdiscovery, supportcommunityBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. At last submitted for separation from my inactive spouse after he embarrassed me at supper with his former partner. Departed with our child and stayed away for the night, and now he's pleading for another opportunity. 28F recently left my husband Carson, 28M, over a fight about his behavior at a dinner with his ex, and now, he and all our friends are accusing me of overreacting

and being too sensitive, so I'm here for an unbiased and objective set of opinions. Carson and I have been married for five years and even have a four-year-old son together. We were together in college and got married shortly after graduation and we've been together ever since. I quit my job for a couple of months after marriage but rejoined six months after my son was born. It was a tough decision but I had to make it because Carson's income alone wasn't enough for the three of us. So I decided that I was going to put my degree to use and actually contribute to the household expenses. That decision of mine led to a lot of dispute because

Carson believed that it was an insult to him somehow and it showed that I had no faith in him. I had to convince him for quite some time to make him believe that this had nothing to do with his capabilities, but I just believed that two heads were better than one and so, it was important for me to work. He was miffed with me for quite a while, but eventually, he came around since it allowed him to take some time off of work and spend it with our son. The downside of this was that now, I ended up doing both the household work and my job. Carson is a personal trainer at the local gym, so his job is a lot more physically strenuous than mine. I have a desk job so he thinks that I should do most of the household work which I think isn't exactly fair because even though I don't have

to do a lot of physical activity at my job, it's still pretty tiring and I have to work longer hours. We agreed that he'd do at least some of the chores back when I started working at first. But I would always come back home to a badly done job and his excuse was that he was just too tired and we'd fight over that, so eventually I gave up trying to make him do things and started doing all the chores on my own. I got sick of the regular fight so I took up smoking as well because I was always stressed out from my job, doing all the work at home, and also raising our son. He'd pick up our son from daycare but I was always the one dropping him off because

he wanted to sleep in on most days. I did all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry alongside my job so occasionally, the meals wouldn't be perfectly done because I'm not exactly a wonder woman. I spent the last couple of years living like this while also putting up with Carson and his relentless jibes at me about my sloppy cooking, which he didn't even realize was kind of his own fault because he didn't know how to cook. I put up with all of it simply for the sake of my son because I knew that if I decided to leave, it would have a bad impact on my son's life. Last year, I gave up and hired a maid whose salary comes out of my pocket. That led to more mocking by Carson because he thought that it reflected poorly on my

homemaking skills and he would constantly talk about how his mother, his aunts, and so many other women he knew could easily manage working as well as taking care of their home and family. I would argue with him that these women probably had supportive husbands as well, but then he would just laugh it off and tell me to relax because it was just a joke and that would annoy me even more. We did have good times occasionally but what stuck were the times that he would get on my nerves. And I'd been thinking about divorce for quite some time now. I finally snapped last week, when he brought home his ex-girlfriend for dinner. His ex-girlfriend, let's call her Emily, 28F, was his prom date from high school and they were together for almost six years in high school

until they finally broke up because they were going their separate ways for college. He was at the store to bring home some groceries and that's where he ran into her because she'd recently moved into this neighborhood. So he invited her over for dinner, without even asking me and making sure that it was okay with me, which was the first strike. Now I knew that these two were quite an item in high school because a lot of his friends would bring her up and tease him about it, even after we got together and still do. But that didn't stop him from acting a little too friendly and full.

with her at dinner. I could tell that he was trying to piss me off and it was working. That was strike two for me. And then finally, he started joking about what a sloppy housewife I'd make and that I'm lucky that I have my job to use as an excuse because otherwise, he wouldn't be able to explain my miserable cooking skills to any of his guests. He was making jokes at my expense because his ex-Emily was a stay-at-home mom of two daughters and he believed that she was doing a far better job at basically everything as compared to me. He informed me that Emily was actually at the grocery store to buy ingredients for some French delicacy that she wanted to make for her husband and then he cracked a joke about how I'd never be caught doing

something like that and both of them had a great laugh about it. He even made a joke about me smoking and said that I just wanted to show off how stressed out I am but in reality, I don't really do a lot. Unlike Emily who does everything perfectly and then, he told me to watch and learn. By then I was almost in tears, but I didn't want to give Emily the satisfaction of watching me cry, so I held back and didn't say a word, just smiled through it all. It was a humiliating experience for me and by the time I served them ice cream for dessert, I'd made up my mind that I was going to leave that night. I waited for Carson to go to bed and he was fast asleep for half an hour.

I usually do the dishes at night and don't go to bed until he's asleep anyway, so it wasn't that unusual for him. Once he was snoring, I packed a few of my clothes and other necessary items and then I took some of our son's belongings, booked a cab, and headed over to my parents' house. It was close to midnight when I reached and as soon as I got to the doorstep and my mother opened the door, I tried to explain but the only thing that happened was that I started sobbing like a baby. That led to my son also crying because he was cranky and confused. I had to bring him along because I wasn't sure if Carson would be able to take care of him in my

absence and I didn't want to abandon him to find out. My parents took me in, with no questions asked. Once they'd put my son to bed, I was finally able to calm down and tell them everything. They heard me out patiently and told me that I could live with them for as long as I needed to and that my father would put me in touch with a lawyer soon enough. And nothing happened until the next morning when Carson finally found out that I'd left with our son. The next day Carson called me to ask where I was and he seemed very panicked. I told him the truth and I told him that I couldn't put up with his behavior anymore so I was leaving him and I was going to file for divorce. When I said that, all the panic in his voice disappeared and he started laughing. He told me to

cut out the drama and just come back home. That was an incredibly infuriating thing that he said, so I started yelling at him and told him that he was an incompetent, lazy, selfish and misogynistic man and I didn't want to be with him anymore. And that I would rather be single for the rest of my life than go back to him. That's when he finally seemed to realize that I was serious and I was not just saying this for dramatic effect. Instead of just apologizing, he started fighting with me on the phone and told me that I was overreacting and making a big deal out of nothing. He told me that he was just trying to lighten the mood around Emily with his jokes and there was no need for me to take things to heart. But here's the thing, his jokes weren't funny.

They were really cruel and mean, especially given how I was trying my very best already and he just kept pushing me to my limit every single day. He kept insisting that he was just joking and he didn't mean any of it and I just couldn't explain to him that I wasn't leaving him just over the jokes. There were a lot of factors involved and I'd been thinking about this for quite some time. Once it finally got into his thick skull that this wasn't just about the jokes, he started playing the victim and accused me of leading him on because I'd said that I was already planning on leaving him and this was just the last straw. It was a very frustrating conversation, so I disconnected the call after a while because I didn't want to scream at him and lose my temper again. I knew that

there was no talking to him and explaining things to him because he was just unreasonable and stupid and I regretted ever even marrying him or getting together with him then. Little did I know that my problems were just about to get worse because after that phone call, he involved all our friends and everybody started texting me to tell me that I was being extremely unfair to him. It was just text after text of people telling me that I needed to think about our family and my son, and put them first instead of myself and letting a few stupid jokes get to me. I told everybody that there were a lot of things that they didn't know, but everybody just kept saying that I shouldn't destroy a marriage and a home over some jokes.

So I even put up a post, explaining everything that I mentioned earlier on in the post and seemed to pacify certain people. Carson also saw that post and he told me if these were the problems that I had with him, then I should have told him and he would have worked on it. It was ridiculous because I did keep telling him, for years on end, that I didn't approve of certain things. But it had no effect on him and he just continued behaving the way he always did, he never changed. It was like talking to a wall and I was just done now. But after that post, he started telling me that he would change and he would be better and he just needed one last chance to make it work.

He also got some of our friends to try and persuade me to stay and they all. also promised me that he would definitely change for the better and be a good husband. But the fact that he kept involving our friends in this, just rubbed me the wrong way. It didn't work in his favor because it made me feel like he was trying to peer pressure me into not getting a divorce, which was a pretty manipulative and childish tactic. I also just didn't believe that he was capable of changing anymore because I'd given him a lot of chances to improve over the past few years but he never had. And I was sure that even this time if I decided to stay with him, he would probably

try to put in a real effort for a few months, but then he'd be back to his old behavior. I just didn't want to risk it because I wasn't getting any younger, sister and I was sick of being a single mother despite having a husband. And all things apart, I didn't think he was the correct role model for our son. I definitely didn't want my son to grow up in a household where behavior like Carson's was normalized. I had stayed with him for so long for my son's sake and now I was going to leave him for the same reason. I didn't see anything unfair. or unreasonable about whatever I was doing, so I went ahead and filed for divorce a couple of days ago and today, he was served. He was furious, mostly because he didn't even want a divorce in the first

place. And also because he realized that I'd filed for full custody of our son and was also demanding that I get to keep the house that we used to live in the divorce, or we could sell it and split the money 60 to 40 percent, with me getting the larger share. That house was a wedding gift from both our parents, so I thought that it was fair that either I get to keep it or we could split the money that we get from selling the house. But either way, I believe that I was entitled to the larger share because of all the hard work and efforts that I'd put in for the last couple of years, ever since I had my son. I was working full-time, raising my son, and also doing all the household work without any help from him and I strongly believe that I was entitled to at least the house.

The rest of it he could still contest. I wasn't even demanding any alimony. so I thought that it was a completely fair petition. But Carson believed that I was being unreasonable and that even if I wanted to get a divorce, I shouldn't have filed for full custody. Because it's about our son, and he is just as much his as he is mine. Which is fair,

but I just don't think he's up to the task of being a father. And I haven't tried to take away his visiting rights, so he can still come by and see his son whenever he wants to. He just doesn't get to stay with him full time. He doesn't even know the first thing about our son. He called me today, after he was served and told me that I was being insane and this was a gross overreaction. He told me that he already didn't even agree with the divorce and now that I was demanding

full custody in the house. He had reason to believe that I was just being hysterical and wasn't thinking straight. I told him that I had come to this conclusion after a lot of thinking and it hadn't been easy for me either and I tried to explain things to him rationally, but he was so upset that he just started sobbing on the other end and that made things very awkward for me. A husband isn't much of an emotional guy and I guess that's pretty obvious from everything that I just said, so as just breaking down is a very big deal. He was crying and he told me, very emotionally, that he'd never expected that he could ever even stand to lose me someday,

which is why he'd taken everything for granted, and begged me to give him just one last chance to prove that he could be a good husband and a great father. It was incredibly hard for me to stand my ground, but I had to tell him that my decision was final and that he had realized things a little too late. I couldn't just go back to that life again now. He started crying even harder and for the next couple of minutes, I just had to stay on the call and try to console him, which was weird and uncomfortable for me. Eventually, he stopped crying and told me that he'd never be able to forgive me or even himself if our son suffered because of this. I told him not to worry and said that this was just a temporary arrangement because our son is still pretty little now, and that we could

renegotiate the terms of his custody in a couple of years, when he was a little bit older, so he didn't have to worry about him. I told him that this was going to be hard on both of us, but we just had to make the best of our situation and try to be strong for the sake of our son. But then after I said that, he abruptly hung up on me and then I didn't hear anything from anybody for the next couple of hours. However, now all of a sudden, all our friends have started texting me again to tell me what I'm doing is wrong on a fundamental level and that I need to reconsider my decision. They're telling me that since Carson is begging for one last chance, I really should consider it, instead of being so cold-hearted and thinking about my family.

At first, it was just a few people but now it's practically everyone that we know and I seriously have started to reconsider because maybe I am the A-hole here. I don't even know anymore. So I'm here. I'd offer filing for divorce from my husband and full custody of our son because he doesn't help me? Update 1, hi, so I'm back here after a really busy week. I was busy with my attorney, preparing for the negotiations. Carson and I are meeting with a court-appointed mediator first for both, the divorce settlement and the custody case.

I'm not too worried about the divorce, but the custody battle has me pretty stressed out. I know our son prefers me, mostly because he spends a lot of time with me and always has. Carson's always tried to have a relationship with our son solely on his terms, but we all know, that's not how kids work. So our son has always been a lot closer to me as compared to Carson honestly, it's his own fault. And also, like I said, Carson doesn't know the first thing about raising children so it'll be a huge blow to me if he ends up getting partial custody because I do not think he's responsible enough to handle that. My attorney and I are preparing for everything that they can throw at us and well, it's so far, so

good. I was stressed out and nervous about everything, which is why I was rethinking my decision the peer pressure didn't help. What did help was talking my heart out on this platform and the comments mostly took my side on this. So thank you for all of that because it helped me realize that I was actually doing the right thing and I shouldn't let anybody distract me from that. It's been a really long time since I've had any help from anybody with my life and now that I'm finally living with my parents and they're helping me with everything, I realize how stressed out and tightly wound I've been ever since I got married to Carson. This was something that needed to happen and it was long overdue so now that it's finally Carson really should have seen it

coming in the fact that he keeps involving our friends again and again just makes me even more sure of the fact that I'm doing the right thing for all of us. He might not be a terrible person to other people but he hasn't been the best husband or the best father. Let alone the best, he hasn't even been good. So this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, especially people who don't know anything about my personal struggles in my marriage and home, like most of my friends who are judging me for leaving. I was taking it too hard because these were the people who've been friends with me since when it comes to taking sides. I know whose side they're on. So their priorities are clear now and I don't mind it. But I'm just not going to let their judgment get to

me because they don't know anything about me or my situation. Update two so today, Carson came to visit me and our son at my parents' house. I hadn't explicitly mentioned it, but he knew that I was living here and it took him a week and a half to finally come visit us, which is a pretty long time. We have to meet for our mediation sessions in a couple of days and this was our last informal meeting before the legal process began. After this, we're only going to meet with our lawyers. So I expected this to be bad for me and I thought that he was going to make a scene but he didn't do any of that, surprisingly. He was pretty normal when I opened the door and let him in and even made small talk with me and my parents.

It was awkward and felt really strange, but I guess in a way, it was comforting for me to know that he wasn't here to stir up drama. After a while, he asked me if he could see our son because he missed him and wanted to spend time with him, which is why he'd visited. That was cool with me, so we went to our son who was playing at the time, and he seemed overjoyed to see his father after so long. They had a fun time playing and I sat in the room and watched them play,

it was pretty heartwarming. Right before Carson was about to leave, our son asked me when he could see his dad again and that was it. I instantly knew that I was not going to demand full custody anymore. I spoke to Carson at the door and he acknowledged that he had been a lousy father so far. But he wanted to put in an effort and at least be a better father than he had been as a husband. He told me that he was ready to learn everything that it took and was even willing to hire a nanny for the things that he believed he hadn't been able to learn yet. He requested me not to demand full custody and settle for partial custody. I agreed with him and told him that I was ready to do that, so right after he left I called my attorney and told him that I no longer wanted full custody of our

son. It's going to take a while but we can fix this. Update three, hi guys, so the divorce negotiations have begun, and surprisingly, Carson and his lawyer are going pretty easy on us, which is his way of saying that he's sorry, probably. It's been going well so far and we're trying our best to be amicable. We have also started working out a custody arrangement for our son. Right now, it's all informal and verbal agreements but we think that he should spend half the month at my place and the other half at his place. And that's what we're doing right now, my son's supposed to go live with his dad in a couple of days. I'm still going to go see him every few days because I don't think I want to go two weeks without meeting him. Carson has also asked his mom to help him out and I trust her.

Because even though Carson wasn't the best husband, she was a great mother-in-law and has been nice to me even recently after I filed for divorce. Not a lot of people would do that, not even my friends did that. So I like the woman. Now, I just hope that everything works out for us, as a family. I have no grudges or ill will against my soon-to-be ex-husband.