Mom Who Kicked Out Family After Finding House in 'Complete State' Praised

The internet has backed a mom for lashing out at her husband and daughter after she shared how they expected her to clean the house, despite working 15-hour days.

On Wednesday, Reddit user u/Kooky_Ad3209 shared the story which has received thousands of upvotes and hundreds of comments and reactions.

She explained: "Long story short I was offered some extra training from my workplace in order to gain higher qualifications and therefore go onto a higher paid ranking in the business. The training was a week long, which isn't much, however it was about [a] 6-hour drive from where I live which meant I had to book a hotel and stay there for the week."

After asking her husband to take care of their 17-year-old daughter for the week, the mom headed off to take part in the work training.

The poster wrote: "I'm not exactly a perfectionist and our house is by no means pristine. I clean surfaces, toilets, floors, etc. regularly. However, there can be a little mess about the place which is not unusual."

But after a week away, the mom walked into her house and was "horrified" by what she saw: "We have two cats and they are little trained. The litter was full with cat s*** and it stank the house out! Neither my husband nor my daughter, both able-bodied people, had bothered to take care of the cat litter."

Elsewhere, there were dirty dishes piling up, muddy footprints in the carpet and food smushed into the sofa.

"The house was a complete state," said the Redditor. "After a week of work training for 15 hours each day, I did not have it in me to get angry. I just sat on the sofa and cried."

​​In 2017, a cartoon by French artist Emma gained worldwide attention by highlighting the concept of what she called the mental load—leaving millions of women feeling like someone finally understood them.

In the comic, stories explore women's unpaid labor in the home, invisible, undervalued, and expected by many family members.

Emma visually portrays how women are often left overrun with jobs around the house before their partner says "If you wanted help, you should have asked," therefore adding an extra element to the woman's role—that she is expected to be the one who manages household chores.

The U.K.'s Office of National Statistics (ONS) reported in 2016 that women carry out an overall average of 60 percent more unpaid work than men. The data found that on average, men do 16 hours a week of unpaid work which includes cooking, childcare, adult social care and housework, while women do on average 26 hours of unpaid work each week.

On Reddit, the mom explained that when her daughter and husband came down the stairs, they began complaining that she hadn't immediately started washing the dishes as soon as she came through the door. Starting to see red already, her husband then said his wife was being "ungrateful" for him giving up his time to look after their daughter.

"I lost it," said the mom. "I screamed at my husband saying that he has no right to expect me to be grateful when he left the house I had paid for in such a disgusting state. I then said that Ellie is a 17-year-old girl who can look after herself the majority of the time."

Upset with her family, the Redditor explained that she told them: "If they are going to treat me like this, they can just leave and go somewhere else, and live like tramps elsewhere." Both her husband and daughter left, with the poster guessing they had gone to her in-laws' house.

Redditors overwhelmingly sided with the woman, sharing their sympathy that she had been forced to deal with the way her family treated her.

One commenter said: "Women's work should not be treated like free labor. I am fed up with people acting like women owe them free labor."

"Excuse me he doesn't get a medal and parade for looking after his own daughter," said another reply: "It's his child it's his job to look after her. And she's 17."

Another Redditor wrote: "Seems like this week has been a blessing for you—additional training and you got to see how much you're valued by your family. Don't let them take advantage of you any longer."

"Your daughter should have chores and your husband should pitch in, no questions asked. Sorry you have to deal with this," said another reply.

Newsweek has reached out to u/Kooky_Ad3209 for comment.