There are milestones in a marriage. Your 10th anniversary, your 20th. And then there’s the 40th birthday. It’s a big one. It’s the one you expect your partner of two decades to acknowledge with… well, literally anything other than a last-minute coupon. But for one woman on Reddit, her 40th didn’t just come with a cheap gift. It came with a devastating revelation.
Our narrator, who just turned 40, has been with her husband for 20 years. She knew this big birthday was coming, and she gave him a full year’s notice. A whole 365 days. She told him she wanted “a party, trip, or something big.” A simple, clear request. She’s not even asking for a specific, bank-breaking thing. Just… effort.
The first red flag appeared two weeks before the big day. They got in a fight, and he spitefully said he was “going to cancel my birthday trip.” But here’s the kicker: there was no trip. He hadn’t planned a thing. He’d “only googled flights.” That’s not a “trip,” my guy. That’s “what I do on the toilet at 10 PM.”
Then came the celebration weekend. She’s getting all dressed up for her birthday dinner, and she sees him… laying on the couch. He asks her where she’s going. My blood is boiling. He. Had. No. Reservations. He’d planned nothing.
The actual birthday was the final, insulting nail in the coffin. He bought her flowers and coffee, which is fine, I guess. And… a Groupon. A. GROUPON. For her 40th birthday. From her husband of 20 years. I am deceased. This is not a gift. This is an errand. This is what you buy for your kid’s teacher when you forget their name.
The wife was, understandably, “devastated.” She told him a Groupon was “insulting” and that she wanted a divorce. This man, with tears in his eyes, begged her to let him “make it up” to her.
So, did he? Did he plan a massive, romantic, apology-tour-de-force? Did he even plan a dinner? Of course not. A week later, it was their anniversary. And he got her… no card, no dinner, no gift. Nothing.
This, right here, is the whole story. The Groupon wasn’t the problem. The Groupon was a symptom. The problem is the disease: a husband who, after 20 years, has stopped putting in one single ounce of effort.
It has now been four months. Four months of her bringing it up, crying, and telling him how important this is. And he still won’t even take her on “an actual date night.” He’s not sorry. He’s just sorry he got caught. He’s sorry she’s finally enforcing a boundary.
She’s pulled back. She’s putting zero effort in. And she’s ready for a divorce. And she’s asking if it’s “petty.”
Petty? Girl, no. “Petty” is what he did. This isn’t a divorce “over a Groupon.” This is a divorce over being shown, in the most insulting, low-effort way possible, that you are no longer a priority. It’s a divorce over being lied to, ignored, and taken for granted for so long that a $20 coupon felt like the final shove off a cliff.