A woman has taken to Reddit to reveal she refused to kiss her husband's wound like she would their 9-year-old son, garnering a lot of support for her and outrage at her husband for his behavior.
The now-viral "Am I The A**hole" Reddit post, titled, "AITA for refusing to kiss my husband's wound," has been upvoted 14,100 times since being posted on February 22.
The post, shared by u/NatalieFox309, revealed when the couple's 9-year-old son gets hurt, she would "normally kiss that injured area as a way to comfort him and make the pain go away." However, she doesn't kiss the skin directly.
It turns out kissing an injury could be beneficial based on some research. A study that was published in The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal revealed a peptide in saliva that is called histatin-1 promotes the formation of blood vessels, which speeds up the healing process.
However, St. Louis Children's Hospital advised not to kiss an open wound as the injury will then become contaminated by the germs in a person's mouth.
The original poster (OP) said her husband was recently in an accident which resulted in a wound on the left area of his chest. She also said he has "0 pain tolerance," but that he takes medication.
The OP continued: "The other day I was helping change his wound dressing and clean up the wound. Before I could place the new wound dressing, he asked me to kiss it. I refused. It just didn't feel right, his wound was still fresh, and there was already antibiotic ointment applied there, so I just didn't want to do it."
However, the OP's husband kept insisting on it, although she kept on declining to do so. He became mad about it and said she does it with their son, so why not him.
The OP tried to let it go, putting on the new wound dressing. But her husband stopped her, venting for a while about how she doesn't care about him, and that she feels "grossed out by him to not want to kiss his wound."
But things didn't end there. "I thought that was silly," she added. "I told him to let me finish changing the wound dressing, but he started arguing and had me leave the room. I left, and he kept sulking for the rest of the night. He then told my son that mommy doesn't love daddy and doesn't want to kiss his wound so he could get better."
The OP was "floored" over this, and her son even "came at" her for "upsetting" his dad, leaving the woman feeling bad.
More than 1,800 comments weighed in on the situation, and people were in full support of the woman and her plight. One comment received over 43,000 upvotes on its own with their opinion of the OP's husband's behavior.
"NTA [Not the a**hole]," the Redditor wrote. "Remind your husband that kissing his boo-boo is a mom's job, not a wife's. If he'd rather have a mom than a wife, he needs to go back to his mom's house. And involving your son in his temper tantrum makes him double the a-hole."
One Redditor thought the OP's husband owed her an apology. "Not only would I not apologize to him, I would 100 percent call him out on his manipulative behavior, ask for an apology and agreement that he promises to never again use your child as a weapon," they added. "That s**t is toxic AF."
A lot of people were grossed out at the thought of the woman kissing her husband's wound. "This 35-year-old man wanted you to kiss his open wound with ointment on it?" a Redditor asked. "Gross. I'm going to go with NTA here."
Another person wondered if the husband has "lost his mind," adding never to involve kids in their fights. "The poor boy will probably get severe anxiety if you ever have an argument again," they also wrote. "You're NTA, but your husband is big time!"
One user wondered who would actually kiss an open wound. "It's an infection risk and yucky!" they pointed out. "He's behaving incredibly immaturely, and it sounds like there are insecurities from you becoming a mother. He needs some therapy I think."
Another Redditor thought kissing the injury would be a bad call, and that her husband is "jealous" of their child.
"Good lord, it seems like there is a bigger problem than this situation, and right now I think you are not the one responsible for it," they told the OP. "This is not about not kissing the wound, and you should find out what his deal is ASAP." They also added, "Is he serious?"
Newsweek reached out to u/NatalieFox309 for comment.
