‘My husband is always trying to get away from me and our son’

“On Christmas Day, he stayed out drinking… I played with our toddler and all of his new toys alone for hours,” the devastated mum says.

Christmas is a time for family, and even though it can be fraught (kids fighting, exhausted parents, that uncle who’s always trying to debate contentious political issues), spending the day together is what it’s all about.

All that lovely chaos is what Sabrina imagined when she thought of her first Christmas with her son and husband, but sadly, that’s not what the mum-of-one got.

“My husband has completely checked out of everything,” she said in a Reddit post.

“He will do anything he can to get away from me and our son, whether it be making up some ‘project’ he needs to start on in the garage, or just deciding to stay out all night drinking with family while I silently suffer at home alone with my son.”

This year’s Christmas was no different.

“He was actively looking for something to do without us,” she said. “He ended up staying out all night drinking on Christmas night… I played with my toddler and all of his new toys alone for hours, it was so sad that his daddy wasn’t there to join us.”

In the past when she’s confronted her husband, he tells her, “Everything I do is for y’all, why are you complaining?”

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The mum often found herself alone with her son while her husband went out without them. Photo: iStock

Dad avoids wife and child on Christmas

Sabrina was at her wits’ end.

She was planning to talk to her husband about the way Christmas turned out, but feared it would result in a fight that would end the relationship.

“If he tries to turn it on me and make me feel bad, I’m most likely going to divorce.

“The things I put up with him just aren’t worth sacrificing my mental health for. My son needs a happy and healthy mother.”

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People flooded the comments with words of support.

Some women shared similar stories, and said that after their marriages ended, things were much better.

“I got tired of being a single mum who was married so I filed for divorce,” she said. “At least then I didn’t hope he would help me and always be disappointed.

“I was happily single for 11 years. My kids were four and two when we divorced, and we did great. I remarried three years ago to a man who is very involved with his own kids and is a great stepfather to my kids. My ex was an every-other-weekend-only dad, he still is. The kids are no 17 and 19.”

“I am a single parent and made the decision to walk. It was the best thing I ever did,” said another. “I got so sick of waiting around and feeling upset having my expectations broken that now I look after myself and my kid.”

“I was married to a man like this,” said a third person. “A couple of years ago, he refused to wake up on Christmas morning to watch the kids open the gifts. Eventually I tired of being in a marriage that was one-sided. I divorced him and me and my kids lived happily ever after not having to deal with his BS.”

Originally published as ‘My husband is always trying to get away from me and our son’