DH has an awful habit of trying to bait me into giving him a reaction. I’ll try to give some examples to explain:
A window upstairs flew open because of the wind, I went to close it and he said “I hope you fall out of it” completely out of the blue.
He will ask (during the day) if we can watch a series together in the evening, then when it comes around he will say I can have 15 mins because he wants to game with his friends, when I say that I’ll just go and watch something else instead he will admit that he only said it to get a reaction.
Will go upstairs to bed without saying goodnight or anything, then when I don’t react will come downstairs to ask why I didn’t react.
If I pass comment on something, he always has to reply with something contradictory even if it isn’t what he believes, e.g horrific character in a film, I say I don’t like him, DH will reply “I do, he’s determined and knows what he wants”.
It has got to the point where this is happening multiple times a day. I have tried ignoring it completely and not rewarding it with a reaction, that just seems to compel him to do it more. I’ve tried calling him out on it multiple times and I get “I don’t know why I do it”, he will stop for a couple of days and then start again. But he does admit that he does it.
Its infuriating because when my son does the same to him, he absolutely blows a fuse and loses his temper, but then he does the exact same thing to me?! I just can’t comprehend making a choice to do something purely to elicit a negative response from someone?!
Has anyone else been in a similar situation and found a solution?