AITA grabbed my wife’s keys on thanksgiving ?

A husband accidentally created a tense moment during Thanksgiving when he grabbed his wife’s car keys for safekeeping after noticing they were left on top of her car. Hours later, as his wife and her father were preparing to leave with their 2-year-old, they couldn’t find the keys.

The husband, busy fishing with his nephew, realized five minutes into their search that he had the keys in his pocket. Though he apologized immediately, his wife and her father were upset, calling him inconsiderate and lecturing him about his behavior. read the original story below…

‘ AITA grabbed my wife’s keys on thanksgiving ?’

Had thanks giving at my parents. Came in separate vehicles. When I got there I noticed my wife left her keys on top of her car so i put them in my pocket for safe keeping. 2 hours later her father starts hounding her to leave so they pack up the car with our 2 year old.

Meanwhile I’m fishing with my lil nephew (reeled In 3 bullhead cats) and I notice they are leaving so I immediately start cleaning up our gear and cleaning the fish to take home for tomorrow’s dinner.  Wife spent about 5 minutes frantically looking for her keys and her father getting frustrated that they can’t find them telling her he needs to be back home.

I realise what’s happening 5 mins in while I’m cleaning the fish and jump up and run over and tell her sorry the keys are in my pocket and I forgot I picked them up. Got lectured on how I need to change my behaviour and that I’m inconsiderate.

Here’s what the community had to contribute:

beahero2002- −  Something tells me that your 5 minutes was a lot more to everyone else.

f_originalusernames −  I’m a little irritated you were fishing while she is dealing with both packing up the 2 year old and the grumpy dad. But it seems like you get moving in the right direction… eventually? Keys seem like the straw that broke the camel’s back.

She was under a ton of pressure while you were having leisure time with your nephew. Family holidays are hard. There are usually no winners, everyone is TA, and you could have hopped up sooner to help her.

UnicornFarts1111 −  NAH. It is the holiday, people are tired and frustrated. She probably feels silly for leaving them on top of the car and took it out on you. She had been hounded by her dad so she was frustrated.

Should you have told her and given her back her keys, sure, but again, it is the holiday and people get distracted. They keys were not lost, no one had to wait hours, and as soon as you realized/remembered you had the keys, you gave them to her.. Happy Thanksgiving!

No_Nobody2274 −  NTA/NAH sounds like your wife was stressed out by the in laws. I’d hope she’s over it by now.

RusevDayToday −  I’d say NTA. No-one communicated with you that they were leaving in the first place, which is pretty s**tty. You can’t help out if you don’t know. It doesn’t sound like you picking up the keys was malicious, you were just keeping them safe, because no-one is going to leave their keys on top of their car intentionally.

And when you realised what was going on, you immediately ran over with the keys. Sounds like her father was making the situation stressful, and you were made the fall guy so she could avoid confronting him on his behaviour.

Owww_My_Ovaries −  Your FIL needs to take a chill pill. Was he due back at the old age home for bingo?

Vince7oh2 −  NTA She got chastised so she took it out on you.

Immediate-Serve-128 −  You could have posted you gave her the keys in 45 seconds and these asshats on Reddit would say you should have done it in 30 seconds.

Outrageous-Basil-284 −  NTA.  The normal response would have been – ‘ah thank you so much for finding them – where were they?’ (Queue explaination’)  I get panicky about misplacing things all the time and I’m super grateful when someone finds the thing I’ve lost!  Edit: were autocorrected to we’re! 

realhenrymccoy −  NTA. This was her own mistake losing her keys. But of course you’re not allowed to say that. She was stressed and took it out on you. That’s not cool.

Was the husband’s oversight an innocent mistake, or did it reveal a lack of consideration for his wife’s plans? Should the family have approached the situation differently? Share your thoughts below!