‘My husband set up a secret camera in the house - he wants to prove I’m lazy’

“If I was paid for the labour I did in the tasks I constantly pick up for the household- dry cleaning, cooking, shopping, he'd be bankrupt.” 

Life with three kids isn’t easy, as stay-at-home mum Veronica* knows.

The beginning of the month is always the busiest time for the mum-of-three; that’s when she does her shopping and pays all of the household bills and subscriptions. 

But when her 12-year-old daughter Celeste* asked her mum to sign a permission slip for a school excursion, which required her full attention, she made a note to make it a top priority. 

Weeks passed, and the permission slip piled underneath other important tasks, quickly falling out of Veronica’s mind. 

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Veronica thinks her husband "violated" her by installing a camera in the house. Picture: iStock

Husband installed secret camera to track wife’s movements

“I admit that things happened and we missed the submission deadline,” Veronica confessed, adding she had to “supervise” the cleaning service as they completed their monthly deep clean. 

Because Veronica failed to sign the permission slips, her daughter was told she’d be missing the excursion. 

When Veronica’s 16-year-old daughter Heather* picked up Celeste from school, she found her sister in fits of tears, so she called her dad, Lucas*.

Luas, who works as an independent air conditioning technician, made his way to his daughter’s school and begged the administrators to let Celeste attend the excursion. 

The school eventually allowed him to submit the forms late, Veronica explained on Reddit, adding she “apologised profusely” afterwards.

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But Lucas wasn’t having it. 

“[He] laid into me about how he has so many calls a day but still handles the administrative aspect of his job - communications and bookkeeping,” Veronica recalled. 

“I yelled back because his work is concentrated while my work at home has a bunch of moving parts and emotional labour as well, and I do it all behind the scenes.”

Things escalated a week later when Veronica failed to mail the payslips to Lucas’ employees and argued she could do it the next day. 

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Then things took a serious turn. 

Shortly after the quarrels, Veronica alleged her husband began installing a secret camera around the house to track her movements throughout the day.

“It was a small disguised camera hidden inside what looked like a charging block,” she explained. “He stuck one in a living room outlet.” 

When she challenged him on it, he admitted to installing the recording device and “starts citing ‘proof’ of times I was on my phone,” she said, “and that automatically equals goofing off.” 

She argued she was only ever on her phone to research recipes for her daughter’s ”dietary restrictions while keeping her healthy as a ballet dancer.” 

Now she believes he thinks she’s “lazy” for taking a “TV break before preparing dinner” and checking her phone, so she gave him the boot.  

“I ended up seeing an attorney and just filed for divorce because I feel violated and devalued,” she said.

“If I was paid for the labour I did in the tasks I constantly pick up for the household- dry cleaning, cooking, shopping, he'd be bankrupt.” 

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The Reddit community disagreed with Veronica's perspective. Picture: istock

“She clearly has a long track record of being unreliable”

The Reddit community took issue with many of Veronica’s complaints and argued that there may be more to the story. 

“Was he at the end of his rope with trying to get you to realise you have an organisational problem or was this the first instance of you making a mistake?” a person wondered. “Too many variables but it sounds like he needed proof because you don’t listen to his concerns.”

“There is no way the dude installed hidden cameras over a single incident,” another agreed. “She clearly has a long track record of being unreliable.” 

Others took issue with Lucas’ reaction but argued he might have been pushed too far. 

“If she had focused on just the cameras, the verdict might be different here,” read a comment. “But her attempts to prove that she isn't lazy are such transparently ridiculous puffery that she has a**holised herself.”

The majority, however, wondered what she could be doing with her time. 

“[Veronica]  could not get the permission slip in on time. [Veronica] is on the phone. [Veronica] is chillin’,” a comment read. 

“But dad, who works full time and has to run to beg to turn in a late permission slip is the bad guy?”

“As a SAHM I would've never dreamed of having my husband take time away from his work to go run to the school to deal with paperwork or the likes,’ said another. 

*Names have been changed

Originally published as ‘My husband set up a secret camera in the house - he wants to prove I’m lazy’