AITAH for divorcing my wife for being a SAHM?
reddit: the front page of the internet 2023-10-03
I (M30) married my wife (F30) around 5 years ago. We had been dating since highschool. I loved how smart, ambitious and driven she was. We bonded over academics and nerd stuff. We had both landed good jobs in the same city right after college.
3 years into marriage we had our baby. We had decided on sending our child to daycare after 6 months. But when 6 months were up, she refused to go to work and send our child to daycare. Her argument was if I picked up more work, we can afford a single income household. And she will be saving us money being a stay at home parent. That it was better for our child as well.
I refused. Daycare is normal. If it was only me working, I would have to work way more hours, be exhausted and not spend as much time with my child. I said if she was scared about daycare, we can work in different shifts to stay home with our baby. Like tag team.
She refuses saying that does not work for her and as mom she needs to be with her baby all the time.
This caused a huge fight between us. She quit her job. She took care of baby during my work hours and wanted me to take care of cooking dinner on weekdays and cooking, cleaning and baby care on weekends because "stay at home mom deserves breaks too".
This dynamics really made me resent her. I tried communicating many times. The load of bills and insane work hours along with not being able to enjoy time with my baby all deeply upset me. When I was sure she is not going to listen to me, I filed for divorce.
The court gave 50:50 custody, no alimony or childsupport since I proved it was her own decision to stay home, something I never agreed upon and her career break was around a year only.
I moved back in with my parents and they have room for our baby too. Meanwhile my exwife is struggling living pay check to pay check. My baby stays with my mom when I work. My mom offered my ex the same, but she was so mad at me she refused and enrolled our baby in a daycare. I refused pay for it since she can just leave our kid with my mom.
My exwife and her friends are calling me AH for divorcing her over being a SAHM and not providing any support.
AITA?