10/03/2025
I'm at home on unpaid maternity leave with our 9-week-old baby and two shedding cats. When our vacuum broke, I asked my husband to buy a new one. He didn’t even pause his video game. “Just use a broom,” he said. “You’re home all day anyway.” Then he added he couldn’t spare money because he was saving for a yacht trip with his friends. He had no idea those careless words would cost him far more than a vacuum—because I was about to make him regret every single one.
Our vacuum broke. When I told my husband, Colden, he didn’t even look up from his video game. “Why not just use a broom?” he said. “My mom raised five of us with a broom. And you’re home all day anyway.” I stared at him. “You’re not kidding.” “Nope,” he smirked. “She didn’t complain.”
Then he added that he didn't have extra cash because he was "saving for the yacht trip with the guys next month." I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. That night, after our newborn daughter fell asleep on my chest, I sat in the dark, looked at the broken vacuum, and then at the broom. I picked it up with both hands. And snapped it in half.
The next morning, I drove to Colden’s office. It was a gleaming building of glass and steel. I walked in with our red-faced, crying baby in one arm and the jagged broom handle in the other. “I’m Maris, Colden’s wife,” I told the receptionist, smiling wide. “He forgot something important at home.”
I walked straight into the conference room. There was Colden, laughing with his boss and coworkers. He looked up. His face went pale. “Babe—what are you doing here?” I walked in and laid the two snapped broom pieces gently on the polished glass table in front of him.
“Honey,” I said, shifting our daughter on my hip, “I tried using the broom like your mom did. But it broke. Again.” The room went silent. “So,” I said calmly, “should I keep sweeping the carpet with my hands while holding your daughter? Or are you going to buy a new vacuum?” (get the whole story in the 1st comment)