In a viral Reddit post published on the popular r/AmITheA**hole forum, Redditor u/AITAexhaustedwife (otherwise referred to as the original poster, or OP) said she gave birth to her first child just five weeks ago and explained how her husband’s demands have made her postpartum experience more difficult than expected.

Titled, “[Am I the a**hole] for refusing to cook dinner?” the post has received nearly 10,000 upvotes and 1,500 comments in the last day.

“I am currently on maternity leave,” OP began. “My husband has interpreted it as me being a [stay-at-home] mom instead of taking time to rest before I [need] to return to work.”

Writing that she enjoys housework and that cleaning is “soothing” for her, the original poster said wasn’t minding the extra chores until a barrage of complaints from her husband pushed her over the edge.

“He’s been riding me about not having dinner ready when he gets home,” OP wrote. “He works from 8-5:30, so it’s not a completely unreasonable time…but it’s not like I can just stop taking care of our daughter to cook.

“A few days ago…he came into the house and began berating me for not having dinner ‘ready and waiting’ so he could just ‘walk in and sit to eat,’” OP continued. “I was actively changing my daughter’s diaper while he went on this rant.”

Continuing to explain that her husband went so far as to say he “put up” with her “laziness” long enough, the original poster said she quietly made dinner. Unbeknownst to her husband, however, that would be the last meal she prepared for him.

“Ever since that day, I go to my mom’s for dinner,” OP wrote. “I don’t cook anything…and I’m already at my mom’s by the time he gets home.

“[He] has been furious with me, and has been telling me that I’m an [a**hole] for leaving him to starve,” OP added. “But I only have a few more weeks to stay home with my baby girl, and I’m not going to have that stomped on because of my husband.”

Although some employers provide paid parental leave, and 2020’s Federal Employee Paid Leave Act allotted up to 12 weeks of paid maternity leave for federal employees, there are no federal requirements for employers in the United States to pay new mothers for the time they are out of work.

The Family and Medical Leave Act, signed in 1993, does provide 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave, but the financial ramifications of missing three months of work are unbearable for many families.

While the average maternity leave duration remains at 12 weeks, Zippia reports that a majority of new moms take less than nine weeks before returning to work and cite a lack of access to paid leave as the main reason why.

And with so many mothers being forced to shorten their maternity leave periods, the time they do spend at home becomes even more valuable for their newborn babies and for themselves.

Unfortunately, a disgruntled partner constantly complaining about not being fed on time can severely affect precious time spent between mother and child and throughout the comment section of the viral Reddit post, Redditors responding to the original poster echoed as much.

“You are a new mom, caring for an infant and still doing chores around the house,” Redditor u/stinstin555 commented, receiving more than 8,000 upvotes. “You are a wife and mom, NOT a personal chef.

“If he wants dinner ready when he gets home he can cook before he goes to work or meal prep…problem solved,” they continued. “You are not leaving him to starve. He is starving himself.”

Redditor u/CoffeeMoviesandCats, whose comment has received nearly 3,000 upvotes, offered a similar response.

“The issue with these people is that they’d rather starve themselves than cook dinner and have a healthy relationship,” they wrote. “For them, winning the argument and being mad is more important than spending that time on preparing dinner.”

In the post’s top comment, which has received more than 23,000 upvotes, Redditor u/throwaway212134 warned the original poster that she’ll likely have to deal with similar marital issues even when her maternity leave comes to an end.

“You know when you go back to work you’ll still be married to him right?” they questioned.

“You’re married to a [24-year-old] who thinks it’s a woman’s job to have dinner on the table when he gets home every night? When she’s on maternity leave?” Redditor u/Fortune_FiveHundred added, receiving more than 3,000 upvotes. “Who raised this man?”

Newsweek reached out to u/AITAexhaustedwife for comment.