AITAH for feeling angry at my husband for missing his job to help his mom with anxiety?
(I wrote it in other language and translated in Google translate)
My husband is my partner. I developed a company 4 years ago and asked him to be my partner.
Last month, my husband's grandmother had a serious health problem, so we quit work and rushed to help, and that meant we couldn't work properly for a week.
After that, we returned to our routine, and his mother spent a month taking care of his grandmother, who was recovering.
This week, his mother started feeling unwell and kept calling him to help her. So this week, he went there at 6 a.m. on Monday and only returned on Wednesday 4p.m after I picked him up. We worked normally yesterday, and today he informed me that he's going to spend the weekend there to help her (we were working Saturday) and he's not sure when he'll be back, it could be Sunday, Monday, or even Tuesday.
His mother was diagnosed with anxiety, but she lives with her husband and mother, so I don't see the need for my husband to stay there, since his grandmother already does everything herself, eats and goes to the bathroom, and takes her medicine twice a day. However, his mother now doesn't get out of bed, and he keeps skipping work. Last week, he told me he would take his job seriously.
I questioned him about this and told him that if it were serious, I would support him, but that no one at work thinks it's worth missing several days because his mother is anxious when she has her husband and mother to keep her company.
Anyway, just one thing: his mother openly stated that she saw him (my husband) as her husband and imagined he would never leave home and get married, and hoped he would always live with her.
On Wednesday, when I went to pick up my husband, she looked at me strangely and said good morning with a frown. Even my husband admitted that she looked at me strangely, when I was there to get him because he has responsibilities here at home and with our company (of course I didnt told her that) After saying good morning, she went into the bedroom and stayed there all morning. In the afternoon, she screamed for help, saying her heart was racing. I said, "Change your clothes, I'm taking you to the doctor." Then she became serious and said she didn't need a doctor. I asked her what she was feeling, and she replied that she felt unwell and couldn't explain it. and held his hand for hours and breathed deeply, while I missed work to wait for him to have the courage to say goodbye to his mother.
I told him that my mother also has anxiety and depression, but my mother lives alone and doesn't have the emotional support of a husband as a partner that my mother-in-law has. And that doesn't mean I can quit my job to go there every time she calls me.
Anyway, he said I'm not supporting him and that our situations are different because this is the first time he is the experiencing this. I'm honestly a little upset because he's been putting off work, and I'm having a hard time figuring out how to support him. He said he wants couples therapy because he says I'm wrong, and I can't see that. Am I the asshole? How can I support him?
After writing all this I have a feeling that I am the asshole in this situation…
Posted Oct 10, 2025, 2:39 PM UTC