There are very few couples who don’t go through some sort of conflict. Indeed, the most successful couples aren’t the ones that somehow never fight, but the ones that have good, honest communication that lets them resolve their issues, no matter how big or, in this case, small.
Someone asked people to “post your pettiest quarrel with your partner from over the Christmas Period,” and the internet delivered. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own thoughts and petty-conflict stories in the comments down below.
#1
My husband bought himself a new electric chainsaw two days ago. He has left the empty box in the dining room. I refuse to take it out so every meal time I make sure the box is on his dining chair so he has to move it to sit and eat. He still hasn’t taken it to the recycling bin. I think this box is going to be in the dining room for quite a while, at least until Saturday when we have guests coming over.
Edit: box update. I took inspiration from some of your ideas. Husband came in from work and put his phone down. When he was distracted I placed his phone in the chainsaw box. A while later he asked if I’d seen his phone. ‘In the box’ I replied. Now you’d think he’d ask what box but no, he knew! Box has been moved to the garage without a single vocal request from me. Small win, but I’ll take it.
Image source: twistdmay, pch.vector
#2
Husband put clean clothes on top of the laundry basket. I put them in the washing machine. He then complained because his only clean jeans were wet.
He had it coming.
Image source: NiobeTonks, RDNE Stock project
#3
Not really christmas related but my partner informed me he had put some documents in the “shred pile” in my office.
We don’t own a shredder.
The “shred pile” does not exist. He started the shred pile. Items to be shred was 0 before he placed the item, making it a shred pile of 1.
I asked him when he was intending to shred this shred pile and he looked at me like it hadn’t occurred to him that, even if we did have a shredder, the shredding would need to eventually be done by someone (aka me).
Image source: frankchester, freepik
#4
Husband needed the power off to replace a plug socket whilst I was also trying to get on with some DIY (renovating my office with floor to ceiling built in storage made from scratch).
We get five hours of daylight and he needed the power off for three hours. To replace one plug socket (so he could have a USB plug socket on his side of the bed).
I need my office to work in and only had a set amount of time to complete it before starting work again but at least he can plug his USB straight into the wall!
I did two angry dog walks and still got snapped at for not being around when he was shouting for me.
Image source: Petrichor_ness, ededchechine
#5
The bin men came on Christmas Eve. It was recycling, which was stuffed to the brim. I had work and husband was home with the two kids.
When I got home, they excitedly told me that the bin men had given them a Christmas chocolate lolly each. They were outside playing on our driveway most of the day, so were there to say hi when the bin lorry arrived. Husband said he thanked them, then had a nice chat with said bin men about Christmas plans etc before they moved on.
Cut to day after Boxing Day, I start thinking about clearing out some of the boxes and packets into our now empty recycling bin. Except it’s not empty. It’s still full. Not only full, overflowing.
Despite being reminded before I left, the thing practically overflowing, being outside at the time, watching the bin lorry pull up in our close, chatting to the bin men and accepting chocolate from them, he had in fact forgotten to pull the bin to the end of our driveway…
When I brought all this up, he said he forgot because ‘y’know, Christmas’.
Image source: HauntedPizzaJamboree, Toa Heftiba
#6
We cooked for 19 for Christmas dinner and it was, as imagined, a bit hectic.
My wife was doing the spuds, roasted in goose fat but we didn’t have enough, and they weren’t browning well – so my MiL picked up a bottle of oil and started liberally applying it to 7 trays of spuds. However she had picked up a nice white wine vinegar instead of oil. When I pointed this out she blamed me “for putting vinegar in an oil bottle” to which I responded “it”s the bottle it came in woman”.
Image source: barriedalenick, jonathan ocampo
#7
Over Christmas I discovered the toilet rolls that are always put on the wrong way round were not an accident and actually intentional by my wife. Just sorting out the paperwork now.
Image source: __g_e_o_r_g_e__, Richard REVEL
#8
I’ve got a broken leg and have asked a few times that the toilet seat stays down to make it easier.
I’ve now resorted to sending photos of the toilet – seat up – with no additional commentary to the husband.
Image source: bugbugladybug, Giorgio Trovato
#9
I don’t really drink hot drinks (I KNOW), so it’s only my wife who has cups of tea.
She gets a brand new mug every single time. In one day she used 8 mugs. I don’t know why she couldn’t rinse and reuse the first one and asked her this.
No answer given but I’m a jerk apparently.
Image source: everybodyknowsadave, lilartsy
#10
The wife has a habit of putting things on the bin, rather than literally opening it and putting them IN the bin. Yes, the same bin, literally just the other side of the lid. The recycling section is in the bottom half of the bin, and gets the same treatment.
Then she says it’s full, rather than empty it.
Then she will moan and empty it. So we get to the same end result, just with a massive argument in the middle.
I think the courts will give me at least 80% of the house based on just this alone.
Image source: Space-manatee
#11
She can’t stack the dishwasher. It’s like a lunatic has stacked it.
Image source: Rilkal
#12
My dyslexic brain read ‘prettiest squirrel’ rather than ‘pettiest quarrel’, pretty disappointed now tbh.
Image source: rise422
#13
I went too late to get baguettes on Christmas Eve for our cheese board on Christmas Day. I didn’t really have an excuse, I just didn’t think they’d run out and then everywhere else closed at 5pm… She was *displeased*.
I managed to find some Christmas morning, and she still said yes when I proposed!
We’ve both just been totally sick since then with that terrible flu thing that had just gone on and on and on. Hopefully we’ll get to go and celebrate properly this week…
Image source: EarFlapHat, Markus Spiske
#14
I had an absolute meltdown on Christmas Day morning because the pastry brush I needed to egg wash my Wellington had been left in a sink of dirty water and had fallen to bits. Queue me shouting at my wife upstairs about where the other one was, she couldn’t hear me so I lost it and starting hauling the entire contents of her baking cupboard out all over the kitchen floor.
I soon realised I was being utterly childish and pathetic and ended up apologising profusely. The stress of cooking something quite complex for Christmas Dinner just got to me.
Image source: Mr_Clump, Getty Images
#15
We have the opposite. My mum asked my dad to turn the hob off. He’s hard of hearing and walked out the room so I turned it off. Then unbeknown to me and mum some time soon after dad went and turned off the remaining “on” k**b on the cooker. So…. The meat ended up being off for about 45 mins before either of us noticed. We didn’t tell Dad as he loves Christmas and he would’ve been so upset at the thought of “ruining it”. Dinner wasn’t late. We ended up eating on time for once and dad is none the wiser.
40 years married, about 43 together I think.
Image source: MammothCranberry2733
#16
We have had the flu and have not left the house in two weeks, this was after having a lot of things planned and paid for during Christmas. Lots of money down the drain and no family celebrations. Cabin fever has started to kick in and I’m looking forward to going back to work on Thursday.
Image source: toolatetocare, syda_productions
#17
I spent an age reverse engineering what time individual bits of dinner had to go into the oven to all be cooked at the same time, inclusive of resting time for the meat. But forgot to tell him the start time to put the first bits in, so we ended up eating an hour late.
I got so stroppy I cut myself with the knife while doing the sprouts, but had already had half a bottle of prosecco so ended up weeping and bleeding in the kitchen. While he threatened to go away next Christmas alone. He did say it while bandaging my finger though.
We’re alright now, it wasn’t a disaster, our guests turned up half an hour late anyway so all worked out in the end.
Image source: crgoodw
#18
Told my husband via a 10 minute long rant, in tears, that there’s not one place that’s nice to eat lunch in in Dublin. We were in Dublin at this point, and had been for 4 days. He’d insisted on a Dunnes chicken fillet roll for lunch and it tipped me over the edge.
He’s usually very good at identifying when I’m hormonal and useless but it turns out deriding Dublin’s lunch culture is a step too far and he continued the argument by being equally rude about England. This is all on a bus, with 4 teenagers next to us staring like we were the morning’s entertainment.
My only excuse is we’ve just come out of a failed fertility treatment and I’m currently experiencing insane emotional swings as I ride out both the disappointment and also the actual physical side effects!
ETA: there’s actually loads of really nice places to eat lunch, sorry Dublin. But Dunnes chicken fillet roll is rank and I stand by that, hormones or not. .
Image source: CamelsCannotSew
#19
My partner and I are in a weird place
She hasn’t been happy for a while. I’ve been in a depressed malaise for a while. We had some heavy conversations over the Christmas break that came to a head and she said she was done and over the next few months she’d be saving money to get her own place
I’ve since bucked my ideas up and am trying to pull myself out of said malaise, and we’re getting on better than we have in a while.
So currently I don’t know where I stand. Are we staying together? Is she still leaving? I’ve asked, she doesn’t know.
So yeah. Picked a great time to stop drinking, tbh.
Image source: SelectStarAll
#20
My ex actually wrote on the divorce paperwork that he disliked that I ate vegetables.
Not that I asked or expected him to eat vegetables, he just disliked seeing me eat them!!
Image source: Flaky_Walrus_668
#21
Its not a quarrel as such. but in the divorce she got the toaster. and then she brought it round to mine for xmas day brunch, i’ve not managed to buy a new one yet! (we are still friends and have things we do with the kids as a group). but she left the toaster at mine and i’m delighted by it.. she asked for the toaster back today so i told her to speak to my lawyers…
Image source: Particular_Face1350
#22
Right: Wife and I spent Christmas Day at In-laws, with the intention of seeing our kid’s cousins when they came later in the week. End of day one, wife was drinking heavily and bemoaning her boomer parents’ lack of generosity, their obliviousness and their habit of ignoring everything she said. Cue Boxing Day, rant continues and I say do you want to leave? but, no we stay and have a lovely time. At the very point which we’re readying to leave I find her in the kitchen with the Gin bottle upended into her gob. I am not pleased. I’m spend NYE on my own and today I’m quietly seething, as she’s got some idea that I’m the most toxic person she could ever have married. I’m seriously considering divorce but instead I’m typing this.
Image source: jebediah1800
#23
Just constantly annoyed at each other for stepping in each others way in our tiny kitchen. Or coming in and stirring something unasked on the hob when the other is cooking. Basically we pretty much have a one person standing in the kitchen at a time rule now as otherwise we’ll end up murdering each other.
Image source: fenlanddipper
#24
Oh man, I didn’t realise I was such a stereotype. Not yet called a divorce lawyer but my wife is looking at an apartment today so they can move out.
Image source: ismokedwithyourmom
#25
Something is clearly wrong
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!!!”
sigh.
Image source: MillennialsAre40
#26
Already divorced but i have the ex husband/kids dad over mine for Christmas so hes not alone (kids dont want to go to his).
Hes always well behaved nowadays because i can just tell him to leave haha. He doesn’t help me because he knows after 25 years, leave me be.
My potatoes stressed me out though,and I had an iffy tummy so didnt want my dinner…. no rows though.
Image source: InternationalRich150
#27
We had a massive argument the Sunday before Christmas over the Christmas supplies cupboard. A box of mince pies had been removed and eaten as a treat for the children. I was annoyed as I had no intention of going to the shops again that week and was concerned we wouldn’t have enough for guests.
In hindsight, we had far too many boxes and just finished the last ones yesterday. Fortunately we laughed about the argument at the time but it was probably the silliest one.
Image source: Downtown-Orchid-2257
#28
Not this year, but my ex refused to speak to me for 3 weeks when we were 19 because I didn’t save him the Freddo from my selection box after he ate the rest of it.
Image source: Bad_UsernameJoke94
#29
My MiL said matter-of-fact like “We’ll be staying over Christmas Eve so we can be with the girls (my daughters 6 & 2) in the morning. I said “Yeah naw,” as we do in part of the world because she just talks through everything, has strong opinions about everything. She looked at my wife and said “We already discussed it.” I said, “No we didn’t. We’ll see you for brunch in town with the rest of the family at 10:30.” My wife says “I said they could; sorry I didn’t speak to you about it.” While I felt a bit like an a*s, I wasn’t looking forward to anything about Christmas except that morning with just my girls. I said “You had your go at it; it’s our turn” and left the room. And Christmas morning was very nice and my wife said I could have been nicer about it but glad it was just us.
Image source: sparkchoice, Andrej Lišakov
#30
My partner was freaking out because she checked in to a flight with the passport number from her booking and not the newer number from the updated passport she’d received since.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine and even if it’s a problem we can sort it out” was apparently an okay thing to say. Speculating wildly with stuff like “They must see stuff like this all the time so there’ll be processes in place” was a bridge too far because I couldn’t possibly know and I shouldn’t try and reassure her from a place of ignorance.
Image source: Captain-Apathy-
#31
For the past two years I asked him politely to take down the Christmas lights outside whilst the kids were at school on his day off. It was never done so the lights stayed up in the garden and every now and then I’d get a comment aimed at me about not putting them away, I’d then dig at him about him being asked and not doing it and be met with excuses. The lights would remain up all year round. This continued for 2 years.
Yesterday I went outside with the boxes and took them down. It took 8 minutes. 3 years of arguing for 8 minutes of work.
Image source: slothliketendencies
#32
I was making Etoufèe and he kept adding cayenne pepper to it when I’d turn away. Dumb argument, not worth arguing about it but we had a stupid little bicker and I told him to gtfo the kitchen.
I just want my food not to blow my head off, and he likes it with a ‘little bite’. Spice tolerances differ wildly in this household.
Image source: Panaccolade
#33
Oh, we had a proper row about how to cut fabric to make a bag for my parents.
Turns out we were both right, just I was correct for the handsewing I wanted to do, they were correct for the machine sewing they assumed we would be doing as it was three days until Christmas. We were just both knackered and exhausted and unable to communicate ourselves well enough to realise we were talking at cross-purposes.
I let them cut it the way they wanted in the morning, when I apologised and so did they. Clearly I was too tired to be handsewing anything!
Image source: Neffervescent
#34
My wife had a dream I was having an affair, for two days she was grumpy because in her head I’d had an affair.
I think I’m owed an affair.
Image source: uttertosser
#35
I dreamt that my husband tried it on with one of my friends, it was one of those really vivid dreams so when I woke up I felt really upset. I told him all about my dream and he just laughed and carried on with his day……I was still pissed off so I picked on him all day for not being sorry for his disgusting behaviour.
Image source: ConsistentCrazy5745
#36
Whether Wham were good or not. I said yes, he disagreed. We’re divorced now, but that argument wasn’t brought up in the divorce papers.
Image source: cameragirl17, Getty Images
#37
My wife had a dream I wanted an open marriage. Was grumpy all day. I had a dream I was a Ghostbuster and was really happy all day.
Image source: terencejames1975, Vitaly Gariev
#38
My wife got angry at me yesterday because she suggested that we went to a local restaurant for lunch, then when we got there she didn’t fancy any of the food on the menu.
She later told me she didn’t feel like what I was planning to cook for dinner, then shouted at me when I changed the plans to something I thought she’d like more. Insisted I went back to the original plan she said she didn’t want… then didn’t eat it. Honestly – our three year old is more rational.
So yeah, I’m tempted.
Image source: Exita
#39
We’ve not had a single quarrel or bad word, I feel we must try harder next year.
We don’t ‘do’ Christmas as such because it’s stressy and creates a lot of unnecessary pressure. We definitely don’t bother with presents. We usually go on holiday instead. This year we had to cut it short due to snow (we were touring the Highlands) but we’ve had a nice time at home digging snow instead.
We did put lights up and had a Christmas dinner but my husband was working over real Christmas so it was the Sunday before.
Image source: MillyMcMophead
#40
Peeling sticky labels off containers and then putting them in the bin unfolded so the bin bag sticks together.
Image source: calmdoonmartin
#41
Dinner was at my parents house, they are not the finest cooks but try their best and are good hosts and generous. My dad asked how the turkey was and my wife immediately said “a bit dry”. There was a worried pause until she laughed and said “Ooh did I say that out loud, haha!”. I laughed too and said don’t worry, it’s great dad, she’s just joking, ignore her hahaha. (Although yes, it was definitely dry.)
Nothing more was said, until 10 hours later on the airbed in my parents living room, when I was berated in harsh whispers for not supporting her by confirming that the turkey was indeed dry, and for telling everyone to ignore her, because even though she hadn’t meant to say anything and it had just popped out after a few proseccos and she certainly hadn’t meant to be rude, she WASN’T joking, it WAS dry, and why is everyone so determined to be polite all the time and not offend anyone in this family, and maybe instead I could have said something to my dad about taking it out the oven half an hour earlier next year. At this point I was trying not to laugh at how annoyed she was with me after being so rude, even if she had been tipsy, so I muttered an apology and pretended to be asleep.
As we were leaving on boxing day I announced that we had decided to host next year – no really, it’s no problem, we BOTH insist!
Image source: Normal-State-5837
#42
Not married, been divorced a little while.
The girl I was seeing recently accused me of seeing another woman after two weeks when I was out with friends I had told her I was seeing. So I just called it a day. Don’t know if that counts.
Image source: PartTimeLegend
#43
His kid asked about cutting the labels off some new socks, but we were in a rush. He said not to worry, leave them in the washing basket and Cloielle will do them when she does the washing.
I wouldn’t have minded if he’d mentioned it beforehand, but for some reason that tiny extra job being put on me without warning really got up my nose.
Image source: Cloielle
#44
Is Sushi Go! Mostly a game of chance or is there a fair bit of skill involved?
His argument: It massively relies on the luck of the draw so while there’s some skill/strategy involved in choosing which cards to keep it is mostly chance.
My argument: I won every single one of the 10+ games we played over the Christmas period so what’s more likely, me just being super lucky every time or I am a Sushi Go! genius whose superior strategy skills should be respected?
Image source: TimedDelivery
