A new mum wonders if she made the right choice when she turned her guest bedroom into a home office, after her dad called her “selfish” for suggesting he sleep on a mattress in the room.
In a post shared on Reddit Am I the A——? On Saturday, December 14, a woman who gave birth to her first child in October spoke about her and her husband’s living arrangement in a three-room apartment.
“We sleep in the master bedroom, and until earlier this year, the other two were a guest room and an office space that we both shared,” she wrote, adding that the couple decided to convert the guest room into a nursery after her son was born.
According to the woman, she works personally from the office, but occasionally works from home as a freelancer, and her husband has a hybrid work arrangement.
“We thought about sacrificing the office, but decided we needed it more than the guest room,” she continued. “We don’t need to do our work from the office, but it’s more pleasant and less chaotic, especially now that we have a baby. On the other hand, we rarely have guests. If they do, the office is big enough to put a mattress (edit: normal, not an air mattress) on under.”
Home office (photo).
Getty
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Here comes the woman’s dilemma. Her father, who lives in another country, planned to visit her for a week around Christmas. The trip marks the first time she will meet her grandson, and the woman noticed that he had previously stayed in their guest room.
“A few weeks ago, my father called to ask if he could stay at my apartment again this year. I said yes, but we don’t have a guest room anymore, so he would have to sleep in the office. He asked what I thought, and I told him yes we turned the guest room into a children’s room,” she wrote.
She said her father became annoyed and asked why the couple didn’t keep the guest room and sacrifice the office for the nursery.
“My father got annoyed and said, ‘Whatever, I’ll take the hotel,’ before hanging up on me,” she revealed. “The next day, my father texted me. He said it was selfish and inconsiderate of me and my husband to keep an office we ‘don’t really need’ instead of a room to properly accommodate potential guests.”
“He added that he didn’t raise me to be such a terrible housewife and that it’s crazy of me to think that it would be okay for people to sleep on a mattress on the floor. My sister is on my father’s side, and I’m starting to doubt myself,” she added. , asking the Reddit community to weigh in on whether he’s wrong.
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Almost unanimously, commenters on the post concluded that the woman was “not the one——” in this situation and that her father should respect the fact that the couple needed a little extra space for themselves.
“A home should be set up in the best interests of the people who live there. You and your husband both work from home regularly,” wrote one commenter. “Of course, you could manage without an office, but it would be awkward and inconvenient for both of you.”
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Kindergarten (photo).
Getty
“It’s pretty absurd for someone who doesn’t pay any rent or lives there to expect you to put up with routine inconveniences in your own home all year round to make them feel better for a few days a year,” they added.
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Adding some additional clarification, the original poster said that her sister still lives with their mom, about 15 minutes away, and said that she would mind sleeping on the office mattress.
“[Housing] a temporary guest versus everyday life?” asked one reply. “He’s rude to be so demanding of your space, especially after having a baby. He’ll be more comfortable in a hotel considering how disruptive babies can be.”
“Honestly, sometimes I think it’s wasteful to keep a full room just on the assumption that someone MIGHT come to us,” another person interjected. “I’m all for hybrid rooms. An office with a built-in Murphy bed on the wall. A project room with a sofa bed, work out in a home gym with an air mattress.”
“[Why] take your limited space and only dedicate it to something you might not use for months?” they added.
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Source: HIS Education