We have all heard of weaponized incompetence, but one woman on Reddit just won the gold medal for handled it with absolute chaos. There is nothing more frustrating than a partner who lived perfectly fine on their own for years, only to suddenly “forget” how a dishwasher works the moment they move in with a girlfriend. If you have ever felt like your boyfriend is purposely doing a bad job at chores just so you’ll get annoyed and do them yourself, you are going to want to take notes on this masterclass in malicious compliance.
The OP’s boyfriend started pretending to be bad at basic life sh!t like laundry and dishes, acting like he simply couldn’t get them right. When she called him out on his “forgetfulness,” he tried to flip the script on her. He claimed he was trying his best and that she just had “impossibly high standards.” It is a classic manipulation tactic designed to make the person doing all the work feel like the bad guy. But instead of falling for the guilt trip, the OP decided to take him at his word and “believe” that he was truly doing his best.
Her first move was a stroke of brilliant, petty art. Her boyfriend had accidentally bleach-stained her favorite little black dress. Instead of getting mad, she decided to wear the messy, spotted dress to his next big family event. When he pointed out how bad it looked, she hit him with a “don’t worry, accidents happen!” and suggested they just fix the white spots with a Sharpie in the back of an Uber. By the time they arrived, she looked like a walking Rorschach test, and he was the one feeling the embarrassment.
The petty train didn’t stop at fashion. When her boyfriend “forgot” how gravity works and loaded the dishwasher with cups and bowls facing up, they naturally came out filled with a murky soup of old food particles and dirty water. Instead of re-washing them, the OP simply dumped the “dish soup” into the sink and served his dinner in those exact same bowls. When he complained that it was disgusting, she threw his own words back at him, telling him she was just letting go of those “high standards” he mentioned earlier.
The emotional commentary here is a mix of “get him, girl” and “wow, that’s bold.” It takes a lot of nerve to serve someone food in a bowl covered in dishwasher residue, but it takes even more nerve for a grown man to act like he doesn’t know how to flip a cup. By refusing to fix his “mistakes,” the OP forced him to live in the reality he was creating. She proved that if he wanted to do a half-a** job, he was the one who was going to have to deal with the gross results.
The final boss of this experiment involved a work party and a tray of unrefrigerated meat. The OP had cooked for his event and asked him to put the dish away after it cooled. He “forgot,” leaving the food out on the counter all night. The next morning, instead of panic-cooking a new batch, she casually suggested they just serve it anyway. Watching him scramble to explain why you can’t serve meat left out overnight was the ultimate confirmation that he knew exactly what he was doing all along.
It is a total bullsh!t move to pretend you don’t understand basic food safety or hygiene just to get out of doing a few chores. The boyfriend’s “frustration” when she suggested serving the spoiled food shows that he isn’t incompetent; he’s just lazy. He only cares about things being done “right” when it affects his reputation at a work party or his own stomach. When it was just her favorite dress or her clean kitchen, he didn’t care at all.
The OP admits she feels a little guilty for being dishonest because she actually hated the bleached dress and the dirty bowls. But honestly, sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. He was being dishonest by pretending he couldn’t clean, so she met him with a fake “everything is fine” attitude that eventually broke his resolve. He has finally stopped being lazy now that he knows he’ll be the one living with the sh!t-show he creates.
This story is a vital reminder that you are not a mother to your partner. If they want to act like they can’t handle basic adulthood, let them experience the consequences. The OP shouldn’t feel like an ahole for being petty; she should feel like a genius who just saved herself years of doing 100% of the housework. She didn’t “disrespect” him; she just gave him exactly what he asked for: a girlfriend who stopped holding him to any standards at all.
So, is she the ahole? Not a chance. She is a legend. She used his own logic to show him how ridiculous he was being, and it actually worked. We hope they have a long, happy life together with properly loaded dishwashers and refrigerated leftovers. And maybe a new black dress that hasn’t been attacked by a Sharpie.
What would you do if your partner kept “forgetting” how to do basic chores? Would you serve them dinner in a dirty bowl, or would you have just moved out by now? Let us know in the comments if you think her response was “petty” or perfectly justified!