Tech couple’s ‘dream life’ ends as wife refuses to quit her high-paying job to look after ‘sick’ mother-in-law

A viral post on X alleges a couple divorced after wife’s refusal to quit high paying job, leading to emotional abuse

A trending social media post has invited critique and sparked debate over marriage and gender roles in India.

In a post, shared on X, a story of a tech couple who after a decade of building the “dream life” allegedly ended their marriage due to wife’s refusal to quit her high-paying job and look after the mother-in-law.

The tech couple, who were high school sweethearts, pursued B.Tech and landed in Tech Mahindra together, are engineers with two children and a home of their own, “a dream for most”, stated the user.

The post then stated the woman’s career trajectory after switching companies, learning new technology and eventually earning more than the husband. The user praises the woman of being hard-working. The user said, “Except for post pregnancy 6 months, she never took break. She went to office till 9th month. She is really hardworking.”

Things got rough when the husband’s mother fell sick and the husband demanded the wife to quit her job to take care of her. The user stated that the woman was not willing to quit her job as she already had enough breaks with the first pregnancy. “I will take care of finances. Now you take a break, I want to continue working and I will help out as much as I can with home also.” The wife urged.

Screengrab from viral post on X

“She even offered to ask her mother to come over and look after the kids,” the X user stated. However, the mother-in-law was not comfortable having her at home as it was her son’s home, even though the couple owned the property jointly. The man refused to take a break from his job, leading to emotional abuse of the wife.

“When things didn’t go their way, they started emotionally abusing her in various ways.” The X user stated.

The post also mentioned that the wife also suggested to hire a full time nanny and a cook but it was refused. After giving in to the pressure, the wife moved out and into her parent’s house along with the kids and still suggested that his mother could come over and live there for as long as she wanted.

In response, the husband sent her a legal notice threatening divorce. “Finally she filed a divorce”, claimed the original post.

The post reached about 114K views with over 24K people liking it. In the comments, many users pointed out the misogyny in Indian marriage setups and side with the wife asking, “Will the husband quit his job out of the blue to take care of her mother? My best guess- NO”. Many advising working girls to be financially independent to not compromise their careers for in-laws. Some users also called out the husband for not standing up for his partner.