This Husband Left His Wife At The Airport, And People Are Taking His Side For One Specific Reason
“She hasn’t talked to me since the trip, over a week ago.”
I’m assuming we’ve all had moments of panic at the airport, whether that be from running late, flight delays, or something else. Well, Reddit user u/anguy1284 recently had a pretty stressful experience that has resulted in the silent treatment from his wife. Here’s the story…
47-year-old u/anguy1284 begins his Reddit thread by sharing a bit of context about what traveling with his wife is like, in general. He describes it as “not a great experience,” explaining, “I’m very Type A. I like everything organized and make sure we arrive early, especially when flying. My wife is the opposite: very ‘go with the flow’ and ‘we’ll get there when we get there.’ I try to compromise most of the time, but when it comes to air travel, I can’t bend on that.”
So, he has a 21-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, but his current 43-year-old wife (whom he was traveling with) has raised her with him since she was 6 years old. The daughter now attends college in a different state. However, last year, after his wife took an extremely long time to get ready, it resulted in them both missing their flight, and they couldn’t get a refund. In addition, their daughter was very upset by the whole situation.
Now, the daughter is currently moving out of her college dorm and into an apartment, so the couple decided to fly out to help her move. On the day of the flight, u/anguy1284 said it was another long morning of him pushing his wife to get ready so they could leave. “Due to the last airport mishap, I wanted to make sure I told her we needed to leave extra early so as not to miss the flight again.”
The husband’s behavior annoyed the wife, though. “She kept going on about how now we just have to sit and wait for 45 minutes for them to start boarding. We took our first flight and landed in the connecting city at a much larger airport. We only had about a one-hour layover. We had to take multiple rails to get from where we landed to our terminal. We got to our terminal and had about 15 minutes until our plane was set to board,” he explained.
But, his wife insisted that she needed to get coffee before boarding the second flight. “There was a little market next to our terminal that sold hot food and coffee. I asked if she wanted me to go grab it for her.” But his wife only wanted coffee from Starbucks, which was an entire rail ride away. He told her they wouldn’t have time to get it, but she insisted they would. He refused to go with her, so she left, stating she would be back in time.
After 15 minutes, his wife was still not back and the airline had started calling boarding groups. “I called my wife hoping she was nearby but she didn’t answer. They called a few groups, then called ours. In a panic, I called my wife again, three times, on the last call she answered and said she was on her way. I told her they were almost done with boarding and she needed to hurry up.”
So, u/anguy1284 waited by the gate until the attendant informed him they were shutting the doors in two minutes. “I waited and waited, but she didn’t show up. The attendant asked if I wanted to board, otherwise, she was closing the gate. I tried to plead with her to wait a couple of minutes but she insisted that she couldn’t. So, I boarded the plane.”
A few minutes later, his wife finally showed up at the gate. She calls to tell him they won’t let her board because they already removed the boarding ramp. “She told me I needed to tell them to let me off the plane to be with her and I said no. It is not fair to do this again to our daughter. I said I told you we didn’t have time but you decided to go anyway. I told her to go purchase a new ticket for the next flight and I would see her when she arrived.”
His wife got another ticket, and when she finally arrived, she seemed unbothered and didn’t acknowledge the situation, according to u/anguy1284. “I thought maybe she realized it was her fault and just wanted to drop it… Boy was I wrong. We are now home and she hasn’t talked to me since the trip, over a week ago, and is insisting that I am an asshole. So, am I the asshole?”
And people were quick to defend the husband. Here are there reasons:
“I know people complain that Redditors are too quick to say end the relationship, but I, personally, could not cope with this. This had to have come up while they were dating, and in the husband’s case, I wouldn’t let it proceed to something more permanent. I felt stressed just reading about his wife getting Starbucks.”
—u/41flavorsandthensome
“I stopped being the caretaker for my partner after the first time we missed a flight. Told him nope, never again. Next two flights he missed, and man, he bitched. I explained again that he’s a damn adult and has choices to make. The third time, he missed a 10-day cruise. He’s never been late again. He’s pissed about it but listens to me and gets up, ready, and out the door on time.”
—u/Over-Marionberry-686
“In my experience, someone who is truly ‘go with the flow’ shrugs off things like being able to get the special coffee they want because they don’t have time. And if they do miss a flight, they go ‘oh bummer’ and adapt to the new situation without blaming other people and just figure out the next steps. This isn’t someone being laid back. This is someone being inconsiderate of other people’s time and emotions, and then being emotionally manipulative when called out. This wasn’t fair to the husband or daughter, and the silent treatment is not okay.”
—u/socklobsterr
“You’re not an asshole and she knows it. The silent treatment is a way of forcing you to act like you are. Just pretend not to notice.”
—u/Alert-Artichoke-2743
“As someone who arrives several hours early to any flight, this kind of behaviour is genuinely bewildering. If you’re not spending an hour dawdling at the gate before boarding commences, you’re asking for trouble. 😂😂😂”
—u/knittedjedi
“Your wife is very selfish. Imagine missing time with your child because you thought coffee was more important. During a move no less. The only option is to stop coddling your wife as apparently people have been doing all her life. Leave on the dot, every time. Eventually, she’ll learn to be on time or be left behind. The world doesn’t revolve around her and it’s high time for her to grow up.”
—u/likeahike
“She’s the asshole. Also, what good would it do for you to ask to deboard? The whole flight would be delayed and you could get into some sort of trouble even.”
—u/BobTheInept
“Your wife is acting like an entitled child. No, we’re not holding the plane up so she can get coffee. I used to have to travel a lot for work and was always booked with tight layovers and people lallygagging at the airport made me crazy. Natural consequences are the best teacher. Maybe she’ll learn she’s less important than literally everybody else on the plane.”
—u/Pippin_the_parrot
“Enough of the commenters have covered your wife and her issues, so I’ll just say this: Your daughter should have been the main priority for both trips. Serious question: Does your wife do this to your daughter often? Does she regularly miss/arrive late/ruin big events for your daughter? Because doing this twice in a row seems…intentional. And cruel. Do not apologize. Do not back down. You were not in the wrong. If I was your daughter, I’d be furious.”
—u/awkwardgirl34
“I say — as someone more like your wife — the difference is that I recognize I have these issues and do my best not to disrespect other people’s time/effort/schedules because I’m an adult.”
“I realized years ago that I ‘idealize’ time. As in, if it were a perfect world, I think I can be at place X in 10 minutes or 20 or whatever. The world doesn’t work that way, however. It doesn’t take traffic into account or parking or any other variables that can affect your travel time. In order to circumvent this perception, I automatically triple the amount of time I think it will take me to get where I need to be. If in my head I think it’s going to take 10 minutes, I triple it to 30, for example. This method has helped me a lot and I haven’t had any major issues in years, so maybe she can try that. Expecting the world to bend to accommodate your inability to act like a responsible adult is egocentric. She can continue to run late for everything or she can take some responsibility. Blaming you for her ineptitude is absurd.”
—u/MonOubliette
So, are you more like the husband or the wife when traveling? What do you think of the whole situation? Let us know in the comments!