Roommate situations are often full of pitfalls, and conflict is pretty much baked into the experience. Different people are bound to have different rhythms, sleeping habits, standards of cleanliness, ideas about guests — the list goes on.
But few roommate scenarios are likely quite as fraught as one roommate deciding to bring a baby into the mix. That’s what happened to a woman on Reddit, and it’s creating tons of bizarre drama in her previously ideal living arrangement.
In her post, the woman wrote that she and her roommate Leah have been splitting a two-bedroom for the past five months, and it’s worked out perfectly. “The arrangements have been quite straightforward,” she explained in her Reddit post. “We each have our own bedroom, we split rent evenly, and we generally keep to ourselves.”
Until now, that is. “About a month ago, Leah found out she was pregnant. I congratulated her and assumed she had a plan in place for whatever adjustments she needed to make,” the woman wrote. “I was so wrong.”
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Those arrangements? Well, they basically came down to: Get out, I need your room for the baby. “She asked to have a serious talk and told me she had decided she needed the entire apartment to herself,” she wrote. “Her reasoning was that once the baby is born, it will be too stressful and cramped to share the space with another adult.”
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That’s an awful lot to ask of someone, especially in today’s insane housing and rental market. And understandably, the woman was none too pleased, especially since she works from home, making it a challenge to find the right fit in an apartment.
Even worse, she said that getting a new apartment quickly was not how things tend to work in their area. Long story short, being pushed out creates a huge bind for her, one she is totally unwilling to submit to. “Her pregnancy, while important to her, does not give her the right to kick me out or repurpose my space for her convenience,” she wrote.
To say her roommate took it poorly is an understatement. She called her “inflexible and unsupportive,” told her she should be more “compassionate” to those with kids, and even tried to say that it was unfair for her baby to be crammed into the same bedroom as its mom, despite that being most pediatricians’ advice for the first year of an infant’s life because it lowers the risk of SIDS.
Now, their once smooth living arrangement has become one full of passive-aggressive comments and door slamming. “She keeps suggesting that I should do the right thing… as though her personal life choices somehow outweigh the legal agreement we both signed,” the woman wrote. “I’m not going anywhere.”
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“Leah is the one who chose to have a baby mid-lease with no real plan in place,” the woman went on to say. “If she wants more space, she can find another apartment. I’ll gladly help her pack.”
People on Reddit almost unanimously agreed. “This is bananas,” one commenter wrote. “She’s right, she should have enough space for her baby,” another said, “so she needs to hurry up looking for a new place for herself and the baby.”
There’s really no arguing this. This is nobody’s problem but the pregnant roommate’s, and it’s not a fair request in the least. But there’s one glaring monkey wrench in all this: Who on Earth would want to live in a roommate situation with a newborn baby?
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This work-from-home warrior better get her peace and quiet now, because in seven months her home office is going to turn into an echo chamber full of an infant’s round-the-clock screams. Hope you’re not into sleeping, lady, because you aren’t getting any. And if you think your roomie is a passive-aggressive pill now? Wait until she hasn’t slept for a month or five.
Financial considerations aside, I’d already have my stuff packed. I stayed with a dear friend for a month a few years back when her son was about 18 months old. It was an absolute ball and I adore that kid, but I have never been so relieved to return to peace and quiet in my life!
“You don’t need to move now, but you should make plans for when the lease is up,” one Redditor said. “You don’t want to live with a newborn and an entitled passive aggressive mom.” Yep. You think your living arrangement is contentious now? Hoo boy, buckle up.
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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
