She Left Her House And Wants To Divorce Her Husband After He Threw Away Her Prized Puzzle Collection And Called Them “Glorified Pieces Of Plastic”
This 34-year-old woman and her husband, 35, married six years ago. They’ve known each other since childhood and grew up in the same tiny city. Everyone assumed they’d end up dating and getting married one day.
She’s always had a passion for doing puzzles and tried to persuade her husband to do puzzles with her, telling him it would bring her a lot of joy to spend time together doing something she loved.
“However, when I told my husband this, he just laughed and said he has better things to do than ‘care home activities.’ The comment always rubbed me the wrong way, but I know my husband can be insensitive to these things, so I never commented further on it,” she said.
She and her husband had opposite interests. He enjoyed hiking or hanging out with friends when he had free time, but she was more of a homebody. She loved reading, cooking, and doing puzzles.
While she wouldn’t label herself as an introvert, her husband has constantly advised her to work harder to go out and talk to people.
During their fights, her husband has been bringing this point up more often. A few weeks ago, she questioned why it annoyed him so much that she didn’t enjoy socializing as much as he did. In response, he said, “‘It’s a waste of a pretty face,'” which understandably offended her.
She expressed how upsetting his statement was, adding that he shouldn’t have married her if he was so irritated with how she chose to spend her free time.
After she said that, her husband sneered and agreed that they shouldn’t have gotten married. He walked out of the house and didn’t return until that night, once she’d already gone to bed. When she finishes a puzzle, she puts it on display in her home office.
Over time, she’s finished many puzzles, so she has a huge collection of them on display. Early in their marriage, she told her husband she’d keep the puzzles in the office and promised not to have puzzle pieces lying around the house.
rawpixel.com – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Her husband constantly insulted her hobby, claiming the puzzles were “‘eyesores.'” He told her he wanted their house to be a home, but he thought the puzzles made it feel like a “‘children’s playhouse.'”
One of her friends moved away several years ago and gifted her a puzzle before she left. This puzzle became her favorite, so when her husband left the house after their fight, she decided to redo this puzzle to cope with her feelings.
“It was a beautiful, custom-made puzzle, and it meant the world to me. The picture that the puzzle creates is one of me and my friend at our graduation. It’s a big puzzle, comprising about 200 plus pieces, so I didn’t finish it that day, and I went to bed, leaving the pieces scattered over our dining table,” she explained.
The following morning, she got out of bed and was ready to finish the puzzle, but it wasn’t on the dining room table anymore. She checked the bedroom and office, where she saw that all of her puzzles were gone.
Eventually, she walked into the kitchen and questioned her husband about what had happened to her puzzles. He glanced at her with an arrogant grin on his face and said he put her puzzles “‘where they belong.'”
Unfortunately, she knew he meant he’d thrown her entire puzzle collection in the garbage. When she realized this, it was a Friday morning, and the garbage collectors were coming through their neighborhood, so her puzzles were gone.
Instead of wasting her energy screaming and fighting with him, she marched to the bedroom, packed a bag, and got a cab. She went to stay at her mother’s house, and her husband didn’t try to convince her to stay. As she was leaving, he didn’t question where she was going.
Once she was settled at her mom’s house, she explained what her husband did, and her mom was incredibly supportive. Her mother said she should stay with her as long as she wanted until she decided how she wanted to move forward with the future of her marriage.
When she asked her friends for advice, they informed her that her husband had been contacting them to find out where she was and asked all of them not to tell her he’d asked. Her friends thought she should file for divorce or at least seek marriage counseling.
“My husband realized I was serious, and so he started spamming my phone with calls and messages, telling me I was being ‘rash and unreasonable’ and that no normal human should care that much about ‘glorified pieces of plastic.’ I had not yet replied to any of his messages. Some of my friends could not understand why the puzzles hold such value to me,” she shared.
The longer she was away from her husband, the more she knew she didn’t want to be married to him anymore after what he did. Finally, she contacted her husband and said that she’d grieve more about her puzzles being thrown away than she would in response to ending their marriage.
Some of her loved ones thought she wasn’t making the right choice by jumping so fast into filing for divorce. They worry that she’ll have regrets later on.
Despite their concerns, she didn’t agree because she accepted that she despised her husband. Years ago, when she was around 22, she and her husband had just started dating. They were having issues and took a temporary break from their relationship, and during that time, she slept with one of her friends who moved out of their hometown.
When she and her husband took a break, she assumed they could date other people, and her husband slept with other women while they were on a break. But years later, her husband threw it in her face that she hooked up with someone else, even though he did, too.
According to him, it was acceptable for him to sleep with other people, but it “tarnished her worth” when she slept with another man.
Now that she realizes she despises her husband, she doesn’t regret sleeping with someone else while on a break, even though her husband tried to make her feel guilty for years.
Upon reflection, she accepted that even though she wouldn’t describe her husband as “abusive,” she knew they didn’t have much in common and would be better as just friends rather than romantic partners. She hopes he has a great life after they go their separate ways.
What would you have done if you had been in her shoes?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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