Gaming is constantly a point of contention among couples. Typically, men play too much while ignoring their household duties and relationships.
One man came to Reddit to find out if he was in the wrong for gaming while his wife hosted a movie party.
He Wants To Play His Game
The Original Poster (OP) sought Reddit’s advice after a fight with his wife over gaming. She was upset he didn’t help her host a movie party, but he said he’d been anticipating this game for a long time and informed his wife of the release months in advance.
“Tears of the Kingdom came out today on the Nintendo Switch, and I have been looking forward to, and planning for, this game for years,” said the OP.
He explained exactly how much he prepared for the release date.
“Starting 6 or so months ago, I told my wife that when this game came out I would essentially become {a} hermit and go into a hole for the entire weekend of its release. I would eat, sleep, breathe Zelda. I continued to reiterate to her my plans every time the topic came up and even more so as the game got closer to release. I took time off of work as I put this on my work calendar as soon as I knew the launch date,” he explained.
Wife Plans a Dinner Party
His wife decided that his pre-planned gaming party was the perfect opportunity to host a movie night with the neighbors.
“Earlier this week, I reminded her again that I would essentially disappear this weekend to do what I want to do, which is to play the new game all weekend. She then plans a movie night with a bunch of neighbors for tonight, on launch day,” he said.
OP Does Help Wife
Though his comment about her planning the party for launch date dripped with frustration, OP stepped up. He took breaks from his beloved game to help his wife clean the house and prepare for her guests.
“I made sure to clean up the house, do the dishes, and even did like 4 loads of laundry and re-organized the linen closet in preparation for this weekend. The time for the party rolled around, and I took a break from playing, made all the popcorn, and set everything up in our home theater for her,” he said, describing all the effort he took to ensure her party was successful.
After helping, he returned to his game but took a few breaks to greet guests and show them to the theater room.
As planned, he spent most of the night enjoying his new game.
Wife Gets Mad
OP’s efforts weren’t good enough for his wife. After the party, she picked a fight with him, saying, “It was weird and stupid that I couldn’t carve out a couple hours for this movie night.”
OP said he defended himself by saying he had this night planned for months, but she wasn’t having any of his explanation.
Therefore, he went to Reddit to see if he was wrong.
Reddit Speaks Out: OP Justified
Most of Reddit agreed that OP was justified in playing his game for the night.
“She arranged this when she had known for months what your plans were. You did a lot of preparation for her event, took breaks to speak to her guests, and even helped to clean up after her event,” pointed out one user. “She’s being utterly unreasonable,” they added.
“She is being unreasonable to expect you to change your plans because she wants to entertain people,” stated another.
Power Move
Many users suggested the wife purposely planned movie night as some weird power struggle to control OP.
“This was absolutely a power move and a test,” stated one. “She went looking for a fight and surprise, surprise is annoyed that OP held his boundaries and didn’t just fall into line.”
“This was a power move for sure,” said another. “She wants him to drop his hobby altogether so she can dictate how they spend their free time.”
“She did it deliberately, she has no respect for you or your hobby. You’ve been looking forward to this day for months, and she intentionally tried to ruin it for you,” claimed a third.
What Do You Think?
Do you think OP was in the wrong for not helping his wife or that she was utterly unreasonable for even planning the party when she knew how important the game release was to him?
Melanie launched Partners in Fire in 2017 to document her quest for financial independence with a mix of finance, fun, and solving the world’s problems. She’s self educated in personal finance and passionate about fighting systematic problems that prevent others from achieving their own financial goals. She also loves travel, anthropology, gaming and her cats.