A Man Reveals That His Wife Started Dating His Neighbor While He Babysit the Kids. He Believes It Is a Good Deal

Having friendly neighbors is wonderful, a reliable neighbor can offer help, keep an eye on your home, or even spend time with your kids. The main character in our story embodies the ideal neighbor, caring for his child and looking after the neighbor’s daughters. The twist, however, is that during this time, the neighbor is enjoying leisure moments with the protagonist’s wife.

How a simple shared interest marked the beginning of a big change in a family.

A young man shared how his wife became close with a single father living next door due to shared interests. At first, the story’s author saw nothing wrong with his spouse and the man quickly finding common ground, as did their children. However, over time, this not only became a threat to their marriage but also created dilemmas regarding how to raise their children.

According to the story’s author, he was invited to join them, but he declined. Therefore, while watching movies, whether at a theater in another city or at Walter’s house, the man had to watch over both his daughter and the neighbor’s daughters.

Watching movies together quickly turned into actual dates.

At some point, the leisure time of the user’s wife and their neighbor took on a slightly different form: they began going out together for dinner. Walter invited the author’s entire family, including the children, to restaurants, but such establishments were not affordable for the man, so he preferred to look after the children in these cases.

But when watching films together and having dinners became ordinary, the author realized he was tired of being a babysitter for 3 kids.

The neighbor suggested a solution, but the spouses had different opinions.

The author of the story talked with his wife and Walter. The neighbor indicated that he doesn’t like leaving his daughters with babysitters and would feel more comfortable if an experienced father looked after his children instead of a high school student.

The spouses discussed this issue for a long time, but the wife was uncompromising. She got angry every time the author of the story brought up the topic. The neighbor promised to persuade her, but the trio never reached a compromise.

How Reddit users reacted.

The story published by the user sparked heated discussions. Although the author was questioning whether it was appropriate to pay a father to take care of children, including his own daughter, people were mostly disturbed by different circumstances.

• [You are] calling taking care of your own kid “babysitting” and not really caring about your marriage. Don’t be surprised if your wife ends up leaving you for Walter, if they’re not already having an affair... © Primary-Criticism929 / Reddit
• I’m sorry, but it looks like your wife has a new husband. And somehow you’re the babysitter. I kept reading, thinking this must be a joke. But this whole situation is so bizarre. I think you need to figure out if you want to be married, and if she does. Because right now it doesn’t seem like you are. © TunaNoodleCasserole1 / Reddit
• There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a friend of the opposite sex who shares a hobby. The issue is, the author of the post is refusing to participate in ANY aspect of his wife’s interests or fill her romantic needs, letting Walter fill the vacuum. © RadiantSriracha / Reddit
• Walter pays for your wife’s dinner. If you want Walter to also pay you to babysit, then your wife pays for her own dinner. © Sparkle__M0tion / Reddit

• He doesn’t care. He does genuinely seem to be too oblivious to understand, but that obliviousness comes from a place of complete apathy. He doesn’t even care enough to think through the obvious consequences of neglecting his wife while encouraging her to spend all of her time with someone who openly values her more than he does. If poly relationships were more socially acceptable and common, he’d probably be perfectly unperturbed if Walter and his wife wanted one. Might not even need that if, either. © Recinege / Reddit
• Walter and your wife might have a common interest but they’ve tried to involve you in things outside of that like going out to eat and you refused, and now you’re complaining about sitting at home and moping and “babysitting” which you chose to do. Also, ticking the box of taking your wife out for a nice dinner by letting someone else do it? © stirfly93 / Reddit
• Not to mention that not only does this man expect Walter to pay for his wife’s meals, he now also expects Walter to pay him for not having meals with them. Dude’s unbelievable. © Announcement90 / Reddit
• You are basically outsourcing your wife to the neighbour, you don’t like scary movies — OK, but to then say that it’s great that another man is taking your wife to what is basically dates so you dont have to? The answer is to try to engage in your wife’s interests and find stuff you two can do together, not to start taking a salary to watch the kids. © OkDragonfruit9943 / Reddit

"Family relationships are not always simple, and we hope that the author of the story can navigate through the challenging situation. In the meantime, we want to share an inspiring story of love and support, where a husband cares for his wife in a vegetative state.