A dad’s questionable “contribution” to preparing for his 4-year-old daughter’s birthday party has left moms questioning why so many husbands seem to be the same. Of course, given all the mental labor that comes with planning a birthday party, it’s nice to feel like you have some support. So when one mom’s husband asked her what he could to do help, she gave him a few fairly straightforward tasks to complete.
Somehow, instead of completing these tasks, he ended up doing something that no one asked for — and instead of taking a few jobs off his wife’s plate, the dad managed to create more work for her instead. Unfortunately, reactions to the story suggest that this is a pretty common experience.
The mom explained that she asked her husband to complete a few tasks before the party.
In a video shared via Instagram, the mom, whose name is Jessica, gave her husband some pretty clear instructions when he asked how he could help with the party prep. “Make sure you mow the lawn, pick up the tables from our friend’s house, and set the tables up for me. I got it from there,” she said. Simple enough, right?
Therefore, imagine the mom’s surprise when her husband decided that a few days before the birthday party was the perfect time to clean the basement no one was going to go into anyway.
His ‘contribution’ to the party was a dumpster.
“Let me show you what his contribution was for this party,” Jessica said in her video before the camera cut to footage of a dump truck. Clearly surprised by new development, the mom said, “A dumpster! A dumpster! To clean out the basement. The unfinished basement that nobody is going to be in. Not a single person is going to be in my basement.”
To make it even worse, while Jessica was already busy prepping for the party, her husband asked her to clean out the house and put the things they don’t need anymore in the dumpster. “You know what the best part about this is?” Jessica continued. “He says to me, ‘Make sure you go through the house and collect stuff to throw in this dumpster before they pick it up today.’ I says, ‘OK, who the h— is getting everything else ready for the party?!'”
Moms in the comments were perhaps even more frustrated than Jessica was.
Jessica captioned her humorous video with, “I will say, in the end, I was thrilled to get rid of all the s— we did. 10/10 Recommend!” Although she could see humor in the frustrating situation, others were less amused and pretty exasperated on her behalf (because they too have had similar experiences).
“It’s amazing they complain that they just want us to tell them what to do,” one mom wrote. “And then they do this when we tell them *exactly* what to do.”
Another commenter added, “Omg why r they like thisssssss 🫠🫠 instead of making less work for u, makes more. Perfect thanks 👍🏻.”
Some people simply could not comprehend why the dad would do this. “It’s actually pretty impressive he’s not doing anything helpful and also putting unexpected things on your plate 🤦🏽♀️ I can’t even try to follow that line of reasoning,” one of them commented.
A few commenters joked that they knew what the dumpster could be used for. “I know the first thing to go in the dumpster,” one person wrote.
Others had their own stories.
Clearly, this dad’s questionable contribution to preparing for a birthday party is not unique. “He is all of our husbands😂 I showed my husband and he goes ‘but did he cut the grass?'” one woman commented.
Some shared their own stories. “Why are they like this?! Two hours before our youngest’s 1st birthday instead of cleaning the lanai – he instead thought ‘you know what I should do? Put these boxes that have been sitting on the garage for 6 months in the garage attic.’ Then promptly put his whole leg thru the ceiling of the garage,” one person shared.
Another commenter wrote, “My husband took off work on Friday before my son’s 1st bday party on Saturday. The intent was to help get the house ready for the party. He decided to return a pressure washer to a friend’s house that we’d had for 6 months. He stayed and talked to the guy for three hours.”
Yet another mom who had a similar experience and shared, “My husband cleaned out the garage an hr before guests were to arrive for our son’s first bday. I asked him to set up the kiddie pool and hang some balloons in the yard. Why are they all this way?!”
