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A husband told his wife he “hates” her hobby of decorating refrigerators, and people responded with applause.
In a recent post shared on Reddit’s “Am I the I**hole” forum, a man explained that his wife recently got on the “fridge decorating” trend and started decorating it. From putting flowers in vases to storing food in “fancy” baskets and jars, her habit of beautifying the fridge is getting on his nerves.
“At first I didn’t mind because I don’t have to use the fridge much anyway and I don’t cook much,” he wrote. “But she’s becoming too fussy with it and adding too much decoration. It’s made the fridge feel very unwelcoming to me.”
She continued: “She gets upset when I take something out of the fridge and don’t put it back. She keeps taking it as a personal slight and acts like I did something to deliberately hurt her when I didn’t. I find it unnecessary to keep the fridge so organized. Before she started this, it would take me 30 seconds to quickly grab something out of the fridge, whereas now it’s an ordeal.”
Tensions came to a head when she confronted him about leaving the refrigerator “in a mess” after he took out some leftovers.
“I explained to her that I think it’s silly and that she can decorate other things, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the fridge,” he revealed. “It gets in the way when I want to eat quickly. When I come home from work hungry and tired and want to eat something quickly, it’s frustrating.”
He added that he wasn't the only one who was bothered by his fridge decorating habit, noting that his son expressed similar concerns. While his wife didn't argue after he expressed his frustrations, he has since noticed there has been a “weird intimacy” between them. Even though she removed all the decorations from the fridge, things have been frosty.
In the comments section, people were divided on how the husband handled the situation. While they understood that the man was having trouble with the fridge's operation, they pointed out that he didn't have to belittle something that brings her joy.
“Was it nice to call something she put time and effort into stupid? Probably not,” one person wrote. “People need to consider how rude it is to call things that other people might find a spark of joy or amusement in ‘stupid’ or ‘dumb.’ Too often people, particularly women, are called stupid for liking… basically anything. Taylor Swift is dumb, the Barbie “The movie was dumb, Bravo shows are dumb, Stanley Cups are dumb, Starbucks is wasteful, and so on.”
“It’s reasonable to not want too much decoration on the fridge or to not be told off if you don’t arrange things perfectly,” another person noted. “But you completely belittled something that brought your wife joy and made her feel creative, I’m not surprised she was distant. Most people don’t like it when you mess with their interests, and most people like it even less when it comes to a spouse.”
Some people agreed that while it was sweet of her to decorate the space, it ultimately proved inconvenient.
“Decorating the outside of the fridge would be one thing. That can bring joy and not impede the functionality of a familiar appliance,” argued another person. “It’s like decorating the inside of the oven or the drum of the washing machine. It’s not fair to the people you live with.”
“It’s hard to call it stupid, but it’s stupid to take a food storage unit and make it unusable by filling it with decorations that have to be in a specific position,” another person said.
