Man leaves wife and kids at Costco; says 'I gave her a fair warning.' AITA?
"AITA for walking away from my wife and kids at Costco?"
So today I, wife and the kids went to Costco for some shopping. While we were strolling through the aisles, we got to the refrigerator section and my wife picked a pack of yogurt drinks.
My lil one (almost 2) saw the yogurt drinks and raised her hand as in asking for some. To which my wife said that she was going to take one out and give to her. My son (4) saw this and asked for one too, which my wife proceeded to do
The second I saw her do this, I told her to stop and not give them the drinks as we hadn't paid for them. She said no it was okay as we were going to pay for them anyway, and I replied that if she does it, I am gonna leave her with the kids there as it was really embarrassing in case someone called us out.
She didn't listen to me and did what she said she would. So, I walked away from her leaving her with the kids and started looking at other things. Moments later, she called me saying that I should go back as the kids had finished their drinks.
I was mad but I know how my kids are so I ended up going back. When I went back, we apologised to each other and kept going with our day. Now we are home and she's acting rude to me and just told me that she thinks I don't care about her at all and I treat her like crap, all on the base of what happened earlier So, AITA for doing what I did, even though I gave her a fair warning?
Extra info from OP:
AFAIK It's illegal to open merchandise without paying for it even though you're still at the store. It's also trashy and embarrassing to do that if people notice you do it
My kids are not easy going as in, they don't take no easily. But I have been pretty good at teaching them their limits, giving them stuff this easily only makes their problem worse. However, my kids do understand that you can't open anything in the store until you're back at home or in our car. I don't want them to think it's normal to just open/use store merchandise
Here's how people judged the situation:
PretendCrazy2831 writes:
The wife commented that he also left her with a full cart and a stroller that she couldn’t handle by herself. So he essentially left her stranded in the middle of the store unable to move to “stroll around and look at other things”. Don’t know where her comment went but it needs to be at the top. YTA
snails0007 writes:
YTA. I used to work at Costco. Nobody cares as long as you pay for it before you leave. Can’t tell you how many times we had folks arrive at checkout with items they had already opened/were snacking on.
I think you’re overthinking it. You are way too concerned with what some strangers at Costco might think of you, and due to that unnecessary anxiety of coming off as “trashy” or whatever, you’re being a jerk to your wife and making a big deal over nothing.
nodumbunny writes:
He's an a*&%ole for leaving all the food shopping to his wife. How do I know? When your kids are 2 and 4 years old, if you don't already know that it's fine to give them some of what you're about to buy at a warehouse store, you don't do enough or help enough with the family food shopping. OP, YTA for not having learned this in four years of being a parent.
jimmy9120 writes:
Wow TIL so many people open food before paying for it. Feels like it goes against my moral compass
sinatralover21 writes:
NTA - unpopular opinion here from reading the comments but growing up I was told to never open up anything from the store while in the store ESPECIALLY before paying. I have worked retail and always cringe when moms hand me half eaten or empty wrappers of food they let their kid eat while shopping.
I would never partake in this and if I ever have kids I will not give them any snack/drink to have before paying.