Danish
Is it okay to enforce your responsibility on someone else?
Reddit user u/royalpaper1 is not a dog person and is the kind of person who only pins out the negative aspects of adopting a dog and just doesn’t want to think about the positive side of things. Fair, it’s his life and everyone’s opinion should be respected. Well, he made a Reddit post recently on the subreddit AITA to know if he was wrong for refusing to care for his girlfriend’s dog. OP shared he had made it very clear to his girlfriend, right from when they moved in together, that he never wanted a dog and would not take on the big responsibility. But he would still make little effort by feeding the dog and taking it out for a couple of minutes just to show that he cares for his girlfriend.
When the couple had a little baby girl, OP’s girlfriend didn’t like how he would use all his energy to look after his daughter more instead of their dog.
Scroll down below to read the story. It is not a simple one, this one will make you think twice before deciding if OP was the AH or NTA.
1. A family drama on who to prioritize; the pet or the child?
Via u/royalpaper1
2. Given that I am a dog lover, this does make my brain go “He is missing out big time” but you have to respect other people’s choices, and OP’s is that he doesn’t like dogs.
Via u/royalpaper1
3. But OP gave it a shot and started living with a dog that moved in along with his girlfriend.
Via u/royalpaper1
4. OP made it very clear to his girlfriend that he didn’t want to take up the responsibility of taking care of the dog.
Via u/royalpaper1
5. But he would do the bare minimum just to show his care for his girlfriend…still not the dog.
Via u/royalpaper1
6. OP’s girlfriend didn’t like how he didn’t care as much for Rex but she didn’t say anything because he had already made his stance on the dog very clear.
Via u/royalpaper1
7. She would make him feel sorry at times but that never worked on OP. Things went on.
Via u/royalpaper1
8. Recently the couple gives birth to a baby girl and in the past year, all their energy went into the daughter and Rex got heavily neglected, unintentionally by the girlfriend of course.
Via u/royalpaper1
9. The girlfriend tried her best to get OP to take on some dog duties but we all know he was never going to.
Via u/royalpaper1
10. It’s not like OP is irresponsible in every department. He takes care of all the house chores and that’s a really good thing.
Via u/royalpaper1
11. His wife understands that he makes an effort so that the house runs efficiently and that’s why she can’t force any extra responsibility on him.
Via u/royalpaper1
12. She now wants to give the dog away because she believes they aren’t doing enough but OP doesn’t want her to do that because it would make things look like she did it because he wouldn’t care for Rex.
Via u/royalpaper1
13. Matter gets taken to the AITA members.
Via u/royalpaper1
To be very honest, this is a tricky one. I have both reasons to declare OP the AH and NTA. First of all, let me tell you why I think he is NTA. That’s because he had made it very clear to his girlfriend that he is not a dog person and that he will never take responsibility. Stil, he would do minor things because he cared about his wife but big tasks, it was a big no, right from the beginning so OP’s girlfriend really was hitting her head against the wall by asking her husband to take on some dog duties. Now, coming to why he was the AH. Well, it’s just a freaking dog. It doesn’t take much when two people mutually look after a dog. OP refused to do anything for Rex and I don’t think it would’ve killed him to take care of the dog. It’s so sad to see he didn’t care about the dog at all and made such a big deal about doing dog duties. That’s how relationships work, you compromise. Duties increase with time and people. They had a baby together, and all his attention went toward his daughter. Well, they had a dog too, and his attention should’ve gone towards the dog as well just because it was a family member, even though he didn’t like the idea of having one.
Here are some of the comments shared by Redditors:
14. They shouldn’t have been in a relationship, to begin with because he is not going to love dogs and she is not going to hate dogs.
Via u/royalpaper1
15. OP did seem like a “me” person.
Via u/royalpaper1
16. She wants to rehome the dog because he won’t put in the required effort but now he doesn’t want her to give the dog away because it would make him look bad. OP, you do sound like an AH for this.
Via u/royalpaper1
I really hope you guys enjoyed this one. Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments section down below.
Stay tuned for more stories.
Dog tax.
“My neighbor’s dog likes to stick her head over the wall and look into my backyard.”