A husband and wife got into a heated argument after he responded to a hypothetical question with the wrong answer — wrong according to his wife, anyway.
The 37-year-old man shared their tiff on Reddit, revealing he and his 35-year-old wife went toe to toe after she posed an imaginary question about family safety protocols.
“This is an unbelievably stupid argument not even based from a real situation or one that is likely ever to happen,” he wrote in his post, explaining his wife asked him “if there was ever a situation in which her and our two kids, who are 5 and 7, were in danger who would I save first?”
“I told her right from the bat it was a stupid question to ask and I didn’t want to keep talking about it, but she kept pushing and pushing for an answer so I just said out of instinct I’d save the kids first,” he continued.
His wife was furious with his answer. “Well, what about me?” she asked him.
“I reiterated how stupid her question was and that there is literally no point in talking about it, but again she wouldn’t shut up about it. Ultimately, I just said to her out of annoyance that in any scenario I’d save the kids first, then go back for her and that I hoped she’d do the same considering the kids come first always,” the man explained, defending his answer.
Now, his wife is “pissed off” at him “over some fake scenario,” all because he said he’d save their children before her.
According to the husband, she called him “unfeeling” and “callous,” and accused him of “belittling her for calling the question stupid.”
In the comments section, Reddit backed the man’s response and told him he had fallen into one of the most common “general argument” traps.
“You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous of which is, ‘never get involved in a land war in Asia,’ but only slightly less well-known is this: ‘Never answer a wife’s HYPOTHETICAL questions,'” one user commented.
“This was the right response! I have an 8-month-old, and my husband and I have both openly said that we would save our baby over each other without hesitation if that situation ever arose. How would the wife have felt if he said he’d save her over the kids? Maybe go back and ask her what SHE would do. I bet her answer is the same as yours,” someone else wrote.