“And That, Folks, Is ‘Man Math’” — Wife Replenishes Husband’s Tea for Years and He Had No Clue

Wives and girlfriends everywhere were nodding their heads in knowing agreement to a post uploaded by a TikToker named Nickie (@nickiechantale) who shared a hilarious anecdote about her husband's tea-drinking habits.

According to her, he had no idea how long a box of tea lasts and just assumed that the quantity was enough to last for years — he had no clue Nickie was actually the one replenishing his supply.

"OK I need to share in case anyone else is going through this. I'm with you. I hear you. I buy these for my husband," she says, holding up a box of Red Rose tea bags into the camera. "He drinks a tea every day at least once, sometimes two."

She goes on to point to the box, "There's 216 in this pack. We were at the grocery store yesterday, he normally doesn't come with me, I said, oh, we need to get more tea. And he said, yeah get one of these the one I bought was like five years ago ... they last forever."

She looks deadpan into the camera and in complete disbelief that her husband wasn't joking — she said that he actually thought tea was magically just appearing out of nowhere and that the box of 216 bags, despite the fact he drank at least one two packets of the stuff every single day, somehow managed to last 1,825 days.

"He's dead serious. I buy him new ones every time they run low. He thought ... he thought he was drinking from the same thing from years ago," she covers her mouth in front of the camera, backs away from it and begins to laugh before waving her hand at the lens as the video cuts out.

It almost seems like she's living in a real-life version of the "Magic Basket" sketch from Troy Kinne. In the short-form comedic piece, Kinne plays a man who, shortly after moving in with his girlfriend, is confronted with not putting in his fair share of work when it comes to chores.

He tells her that everything's going to be all right, and when she asks how, he proceeds to show her the magic laundry basket, which he thinks automatically washes, cleans, and folds all of the clothes that are left in it overnight.

Numerous TikTokers who saw Nickie's post seem to have interacted with men who abide by this same line of thinking when it comes to the mystical abodes they dwell in that somehow, someway just manage to do their chores for them.

"They really think they live in magic houses," one person wrote.

Another person wrote that they didn't think his behavior was cute, but that it was actually a red flag.

Someone else remarked, "The magic of being a husband, everything mysteriously replenishes itself," while another person commented: "And that, folks, is 'man math.'"

Other people responded to Nickie's video explaining that they, too, are living with a male partner who somehow doesn't seem to understand just how chores work: "The other day my partner told me his towel rarely gets dirty."

Then there was someone else who pointed out how they believe folks take the silent work of their partners for granted and that they would personally love to be in a live-in relationship with someone who went out of their way to ensure the more mundane and meticulous everyday living tasks were taken care of.

"Wouldn’t it be nice to just have someone that makes the magic happen?" they said.

The phenomenon didn't just extend to replacing groceries or laundry, either, but physically replacing the clothing of a person and tossing them once they became way too run-down: "My sister used to replace her husband's pants by rotating in a new pair and throwing out the most worn. He thought his pants lasted years," one said.

Another woman penned a piece of advice imparted to her from her grandmother regarding male/female relationship dynamics: "This is why my grandmother said to me, 'Don’t do anything for a man that you’re not willing to do forever without thanks.' She was right."

On the flip side, there was one woman who mentioned how their husband worked some magic for her: "This is like how I’ve been driving my car with the same tank of gas. Just never runs out."

And if you're wondering how Nickie reconciles with her husband's misunderstanding of how tea bags are actually replenished, she gave a hint in the caption of her post: "He is delulu but he is handsome."

Looks for the win.

Have you ever been in a relationship where you thought a partner was oblivious to the unseen work that you did for your living situation?