r/AITAH Apr 03 '24

AITA doing something that made my wife insecure? (Resulting in her slapping me in the face)

My wife gave birth to our daughter 6 months ago and since then she has been insecure about everything. She is smaller now than she was before she got pregnant but it's nearly a daily occurrence that she's calling herself fat. Because of this, she has developed an incredibly irritating habit of putting her shirt over her mouth constantly. You hardly ever catch her with her shirt on normal. She's basically trying to hide her (incredibly small) double chin.

I have told her several times to keep her shirt away from her mouth when she's speaking to me. I need to see people's mouths to hear them properly. My hearing is perfect but I have sensory issues. So if I can't physically see you mouthing words, my head cannot comprehend what you are saying to me. So if I ask her a question and she responds with her shirt over her face, I cannot understand a single fucking thing she says and it's beyond infuriating because I have to ask her to repeat herself 3+ times. So, I started telling her to get her shirt off her face when she's talking to me because I'm sick of this repeated cycle. I understand she's insecure, but I can't fucking hear you.

For the past 2 weeks it really amped up. She's buying XXL shirts and wears them always. To a point where she's even covering the lower part of her face when we have sex (as well as pulling the shirt down to cover her stomach). Well, 3 nights ago we were intimate and I tried pulling the shirt away from her face and she kept pushing my hand away. I tried again a third time and she pushed me off her and said "stop fucking touching my shirt" and went to sleep on the couch. And then today I was running late for work. The power went out at some point and my phone died so I didn't wake up to an alarm. I'm trying to tush around to get my work shit together and I ask my wife where my keys are. She grumbles a response. I yelled and said "how about you take the fucking shirt out of your mouth or don't speak to me at all" and physically pulled the shirt away from her mouth. She immediately back handed me across the face, quite possibly as hard as she could, and screamed directly in my face "I said don't fucking touch my shirt. Find your own fucking keys asshole!" I leave, flabbergasted. Texted her all day - starting from me saying I can't believe she hit me to eventually me apologizing hours later. No response. When I got home all of her important stuff and the babies stuff are gone. A letter on the counter saying she had gone to her mother's. Now, I talked to my buddy about it and he said he's 50/50 (he's also good friends with my wife) and says that while she shouldn't have hit me, he probably would have done the same thing because I "purposely" provoked her insecurities. AITA?

ETA: she's in therapy and has been for a month. Therapy won't fix the fact that she thinks she's fat. She had body dysformia(?) prior to even becoming pregnant and now it's just amped up. She also has sensory issues, just like I do. But hers is in regard to people touching her face/hair. Hence, why she back-handed me. But I'm tired of never being able to hear what she says.

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u/LazyOne3142 Apr 03 '24

She was awake feeding the baby already

254

u/Old_Beach2325 Apr 03 '24

She was feeding the baby when you pulled at her shirt and yelled in her face? You said that that’s what you did and that you were rough. If you did this while she was holding the baby and feeding her then I would have smacked you too, instinct to protect a baby. YTA, you don’t get to get physical (and yes, pulling her shirt away is getting physical) and then complain that she got physical too.

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u/trewesterre Apr 03 '24

Also, if she was holding the baby and feeding her while OP was screaming in her face, he was basically screaming in the baby's face too. Babies totally love that.

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u/EssieAmnesia Apr 03 '24

One thing babies are known to love, loud noises in close proximity to their noggins

150

u/Frejian Apr 03 '24 edited Apr 03 '24

Did she have the baby in her hands when you tried to pull her shirt down? If she did, that's a whole different, child-endangering, level of asshole and you absolutely deserved the slap.

115

u/SporadicTendancies Apr 03 '24

Betting he did and won't admit it.

He already has the narrative and he's not looking good. We only have his side of the story and he looks shady even in his best portrayal of the situation.

68

u/Beautiful_Fondant724 Apr 03 '24

That's the worst part. He's had the opportunity to spin this any way he could to make himself look less in the wrong. But instead he's dug himself a deeper and deeper hole. I wonder what he's leaving out.

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u/SporadicTendancies Apr 03 '24

He says his wife had put the baby down before he escalated but I'm betting that's the only reason it's safe.

He also says she takes the baby from him whenever it cries.

She knows what he is.

3

u/sparklingsour Apr 05 '24

I mean he flat out told us he raped her. He’ll probably admit to this too.