Man throws away girlfriend's 'cheerful' socks with silly prints because he finds them 'childish'

Redditors are labeling a man a ‘controlling a**hole’ and ‘completely disrespectful’ for throwing away all of his girlfriends socks — because he decided they were ‘childish’ and ’embarrassing.’

A 24-year-old woman explained on Reddit this week that she likes ‘cheerful’ socks, with funny patterns like pizza, corgis, and Nick Cage’s face — and, as someone who draws blood for a living, she finds that they keep her patients happy, too.

But her boyfriend of eight months is not a fan, demanding she stop wearing them — and when she didn’t, he threw out her entire collection and replaced them with plain black socks. 

‘This might seem silly,’ the woman began her post. ‘I (24F) like wearing cheerful socks, since my uniform is all white (currently working as an phlebotomist), it usually cheers up the patients too.

‘I’ve spent a few years collecting strange socks, ones with sushi, pizza, corgis, cats, Nick Cage, etc. I think I had about 30 pairs. 

‘My boyfriend (29M) has always hated them, and thinks they’re childish. So I agreed to only wear them to work, and never on dates or around his friends/family. I thought that was fair.’

But on Boxing Day last weekend, the boyfriend’s parents came over to exchange gifts, and the woman ‘accidentally’ put on a pair of cutesy socks, rather than black ones — and it left her boyfriend furious. 

‘His mother made a comment about it,’ she said. ‘I explained that I wear them to work to cheer people up, and she liked that. My boyfriend didn’t.’

The next day, all of her beloved socks were gone, with the draw filled with plain black socks instead.

‘I asked my boyfriend, and he told me he threw them away and purchased some more “appropriate” socks, so I won’t embarrass him in front of his parents again,’ she wrote.

‘I told him that that’s insane, they were mine and he had no right to throw them away. Not to mention that I spend quite some time collecting them,’ she said.

The woman tried to give him a list of the socks so he could replace them, but he insisted that was ‘completely unreasonable’ and would could him too much time and money. 

‘I think he’s being controlling, he thinks I’m being unreasonable and demanding,’ she said.

Other Redditors are in unanimous agreement that he is, in fact, controlling, and that this incident is a major red flag. 

‘Honestly this is breakup-worthy behavior on his part,’ wrote one. ‘He stole your personal property. He’s trying to force you to stop doing something you enjoy because he doesn’t like it, even though it doesn’t impact him at all. He sounds like a huge controlling a**hole.

‘He threw your stuff away. I say throw the man away,’ quipped another.

‘This is such a huge RED FLAG!!!’ wrote a third. ‘He’s being unreasonably controlling over SOCKS for gods sake. 

‘I don’t know how long you’ve been dating or if he’s exhibited other controlling behavior but typically these types of behaviors only get worse with time. First is socks, next is your entire wardrobe and then what you eat, how you do your hair. ‘

Another agreed, writing: ‘It is not right for him to police what you wear at all. It’s even more concerning he tried to take measures into his own hands when you didn’t comply. This would be relationship ending behavior for me.’

‘That’s a low-key abuse tactic, and he had absolutely no right to trash your possessions, or misrepresent the way your mother reacted (positively!) to your socks,’ said yet another.

One even pointed out that former President George H.W. Bush was known to be a fan of whimsical socks as well — making her taste not childish, but presidential.