Woman says people keep ‘testing’ her reactions during arguments

Arguments between couples are not uncommon, but for a woman and her husband, they often take an even more frustrating turn.

The 30-year-old woman shared a Reddit posts that she and her 34-year-old husband “rarely” argue, but when they do, he has “this habit of ‘testing’ how far I’ll go.”

“For example, if I tell him to stop raising his voice, he’ll say ‘Why, what are you going to do?’ and then deliberately raise it higher. Or if I walk away to calm down, he follows me and says, ‘You can’t just walk away, you always do this,'” she explained.

The woman said that last week they got into a “stupid” argument over chores when the situation escalated.

“He started mimicking me, repeating everything I said in a loud voice and laughing. I told him to stop because it felt like he was trying to provoke me,” she recalled. “He said, ‘See?’ You always make yourself a victim. ”

So, the woman locked herself in their guest room and “stayed there all night.” She could hear him outside the door saying that she was “being dramatic and that ‘a real adult doesn’t storm off.'”

“The next morning he acted like nothing had happened,” she continued. “When I brought it up, he told me I was ‘overreacting’ and that I was ‘taking a timeout like a little kid.'”

The woman explained that she just “didn’t want to scream or say something I’d regret,” but now wonders if locking herself in the bedroom was “too much.”

“Am I overreacting because I don’t want to argue his way anymore?” she asked Reddit.

But a large majority of those who commented were on her side.

“He is manipulative, playing ‘testing’ games to aggravate you and distract you from the topic at hand. All couples have conflicts. Mature couples expect it and work on skills to talk through them,” the woman wrote. “Your husband turns any conflict into an opportunity to argue with you, most likely to protect himself from having to face any actual consequences. He is a mean and manipulative man child.”

“He hates you. He’s showing you. Believe him,” another person wrote.