A mom on Reddit has revealed that she was left “shocked and horrified” when she caught her mother-in-law trying to breastfeed her newborn baby to “calm him down.” The woman took to the AITA sub to ask if she was wrong for not wanting the MIL to look after the baby anymore after what happened, and what she went through blew everyone’s minds.
- Both OP and her husband work full time. Her mother-in-law graciously comes to their house to watch the 2-month-old baby for free while they’re at work, which is really nice of her and they appreciate it. This has been happening for the past three weeks or so, ever since OP ended her maternity leave and returned to her job.
- The baby is breastfed and OP pumps before work. OP says that she loves nursing and does so directly when she’s at home in the evenings and on weekends, citing the increased bond between herself and her child from doing so. However, when she does have to go work, she pumps and leaves bottles behind for her MIL to give the baby.
- OP got more than she bargained for when looking at the baby monitor. After hearing from her MIL that the baby was crying a lot and wouldn’t nap, she decided to check the baby monitor app on her phone to see how he was getting on. However, she was shocked at what he saw: “When I looked at the camera, MIL was holding him and she had her shirt up and he was latched onto her breast,” OP wrote. “I was shocked and horrified. I called her right away and she didn’t answer, so I had to sit there and watch her attempt to breastfeed my baby. He was latched on, but obviously not getting any milk as my mother-in-law is not lactating.”
- Her mother-in-law tried to turn things around on her. After frantically calling her husband, OP says that he finally got a hold of her to see what the hell was going on and she was pretty indignant. “Apparently the baby was crying so hard, and that was the only thing she could think of to calm him down enough to sleep. She breastfed all 4 of her children when they were babies, and it always calmed them down enough to sleep. She was mad that I had checked the camera and told him it was an invasion of privacy,” OP shared. Yeah, how dare she look in on her own child at her own home?
- Now, OP doesn’t want the MIL watching the baby anymore. She says they can afford a nanny or daycare, but the MIL is calling her a bitch and saying she’s overreacting while accusing her of stealing her grandchild away from her. It doesn’t help that OP’s husband also wants to give her another chance as he doesn’t want to pay for external childcare.
- Pretty much everyone is on OP’s side. All the commenters on the post agreed with OP that it’s not okay for a child’s grandmother to attempt to breastfeed him. “No normal human tries to breastfeed a child they are entrusted to look after. This is NOT healthy/sane behavior. I would be concerned that she has other issues….” one person wrote. Another added: ” I’m so shocked.. has she never heard of a pacifier? My mind would never go to breastfeeding another person’s baby. I’d have a hard time facing her altogether.”
