Often at the beginning of a relationship, everything will feel like sunshine and rainbows, but once the happy couple takes the next step and moves in together, the storms start rolling in fast.
Because sometimes it takes being around someone 24/7 to realize that you don’t want to be around them 365 days a year for the rest of your life, cringed the members of the “Am I Overreacting?” (AIO) subReddit.
Redditor Spiritual_View4192 had just recently moved in with her boyfriend, and everything was good, except for her boyfriend’s showering habits.
Instead of using a towel after, he would leave trails of water behind him, and after slipping multiple times, she wasn’t sure she wanted a drip-dry boyfriend.
But when she brought up her concerns and asked him about using a towel, the Original Poster (OP) was surprised when her boyfriend spun the issue back on her and accused her of being “high-maintenance.”
She asked the sub:
“Am I overreacting for wanting my boyfriend to use a towel after his showers, which he says is ‘high-maintenance’ of me?”
The OP was excited about her new relationship with her boyfriend, except for one thing.
“My boyfriend (29 Male) and I (27 Female) recently moved in together.”
“Overall, things are fine, but there’s one thing that’s starting to really get under my skin.”
“Whenever he showers, he walks out of the bathroom completely dripping wet, leaving puddles all over the floor.”
To make matters worse, the OP’s boyfriend didn’t recognize the problem.
“When I pointed out that it’s gross and dangerous (I literally slipped once), he said, ‘Just don’t walk there then.'”
“I asked him to at least keep a towel in the bathroom to dry off before walking out.”
“He said, ‘You’re so high maintenance. It’s just water.'”
“I told him it’s not just water, it’s his water, and I’m tired of stepping in cold puddles.”
“He rolled his eyes and said, ‘You’re overreacting, I’m not changing how I shower.'”
The OP wasn’t sure what to think.
“Now I’m wondering if maybe I’m being dramatic over something small, but it feels like such a basic courtesy?”
“AIO?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NOR: Not Overreacting
- YOR: You’re Overreacting
Some found this to be such a weird hill for the boyfriend to “die” on.
“NOR. Speaking as a man who has known a lot of other men in my life… We use towels. It’s very weird to not use a towel after a shower.” – Foreign-Cow-1189
“My son even bought his own towels AND bathmats for his own apartment! And he’s 26.”
“NOR, OP. You might have to send this one back.” – Slw202
“Her man doesn’t care about anyone else, and she’s going to need to figure that out, sooner rather than later, I hope.” – oroborus68
“He doubled down and called her high maintenance… as if 99 percent of people with access to towels don’t use them. NOR, NOR, NOR.” – Typical2sday
“Her: ‘Please dry off with a towel so there isn’t water all over the place.'”
“Him: ‘Godd**mit, you’re so effing high maintenance!'”
“This escalated very quickly. I’d be concerned about what else he’ll escalate, and to what heights.”
“Break up, and enjoy your safe floors, peace, and lack of gaslighting.” – Nortex_Vortex
“NOR. I’ve never not used a towel after a shower. That behavior would get under my nerves quickly.”
“The rest of the experience with him would have to be amazing to balance it out, but with his attitude, I bet the bloom will be coming off the rose soon, then you’ll realize he’s just a pr**k.” – bgthigfist
“I don’t get out of the shower until I’ve dried myself off fairly well… and even then, I wrap a towel around my waist and step onto a very plush bath mat.” – indyarchyguy
“He shows no concern to compromise on something so small and has seemingly no negative impact on him if he does as you ask… imagine what it’s like when a real conflict starts to occur.”
“You honestly didn’t even have to give a reason, and he should’ve just been like, ‘Oh, ok, does it bother you that much? I’m sorry.'”
“Good luck with whatever is wrong with him, but if I were you, I wouldn’t stick around to find out, let alone try to ‘fix it.’ NOR.” – katastrxphe
“NOR. It sounds like he is high-maintenance, honestly. High-maintenance can be a lot of things.”
“It can be a person who is super demanding (and it’s NOT super demanding to expect someone to dry off after their shower).”
“Or it can be a person so adverse to anything they don’t specifically want to do that they make everyone else deal or pick up after them.” – Empty-Stomach5873
Others agreed and pointed out that this was a huge safety concern.
“It’s not even the fact that he doesn’t use a towel that made me concerned. It’s that she slipped and potentially got injured, and he showed approximately zero concern that his actions caused harm to her.” – Shadowphoenix9511
“The lack of concern for her safety is the real issue, not the towel itself.” – KriosV
“I’ve also fallen on my butt and it got my tailbone, thus affecting my spine. It is not something simple to recover from. You can’t even sit for months.” – questioningsince1912
“I don’t think this guy has ever lived with anyone. When I’m alone, I just step out of the shower and grab a towel from the cupboard in my bedroom. Later, I drag a mat along my path to dry the floor, mostly so I don’t end up slipping and making an unplanned acrobatic performance.”
“That’s basic decency to MYSELF, let alone someone I’m supposed to care about enough to want to live with and maybe even marry someday.” – Southern_Iron04
“NOR. Just because he is a lake monster with no maintenance that insists on potentially damaging the floors, it doesn’t mean not wanting to get your socks wet from puddles in your own home makes you ‘high maintenance.'”
“No, you’re at the regular amount of maintenance, which is not leaving everything wet.
“I’m not sure how he can even stand not drying off. I would personally freeze half to death at room temperature while soaking wet.”
“And don’t even get me started on the safety concerns. I’m clumsy as f**k. Maybe lake monsters are graceful. Either way, NOR.” – miserableschoolchild
“Sometimes when you live with someone, you find out that they’re an inconsiderate, selfish, and childish a**. This is one advantage to living together before deciding whether you want to be with them forever or not.”
“Personally, I would not stay with someone who is so flippantly dismissive of my feelings and concerns, especially when it comes to personal safety.”
“High maintenance is the one who doesn’t clean up after themselves. Maybe he’d prefer to go back to splashing around as a single person. NOR.” – StephenNotSteve
Not to mention, as some pointed out, what dripping dry could do to their floors.
“This isn’t even a man-or-woman behavior thing. This is unhinged behavior.”
“It should be common sense for an adult that leaving huge wet puddles all around your house isn’t good for your house. Unless he has all stone floors, which I doubt. He’s an id**t and probably not worth dating.” – Mothra_Stewart69
“I know someone who did that, and it ruined the floors. Not just where they walked and dripped, but basically all of the floors, because of warping and rippling. They had to basically start over to repair all the damage.” – ForwardMuffin
“NOR. If you leave water on hardwood floors, you will create hundreds of dollars in damage in each place the water pools. If you’re lucky enough for the problem not to spread underneath.” – KlooShanko
“My grandmother used to do this. Or maybe she was just getting water on the floor while showering. Either way, it didn’t take long of that before her bathroom floors started falling apart. The tile wasn’t enough to protect it. And that was JUST in the BATHROOM.” – 0hNova
“NOR. Legit had an upstairs neighbor cause my ceiling to cave in from doing s**t like this.” – UncFest3r
“Mold. This is how you get mold.” – toodiisoon
“This is how you get wet socks. No good relationship has wet socks.” – DifficultWing2453
“This is how you get a broken back, warped floors, wet socks, mold, bugs, and lose your significant other, all in ten days. Turn THAT into a movie, why don’t you.” – TwistyTwister3
The subReddit was nothing short of alarmed by the situation that the OP found herself in, simply because it was such an easy problem to fix, and especially since it was still early in the couple’s relationship, when people are typically on their best behavior to try to impress their partner.
But the OP’s boyfriend was already accusing her of being “high-maintenance” over something that most people wouldn’t like to live with, which was also a safety concern and a home maintenance concern; there was no telling what the OP would have to put up with in the future if she stayed.