Having a baby is often a really exciting time for a lot of parents and their families, and raising that baby with the support of grandparents and other extended family members is a lifesaver for plenty of people. However, that doesn't mean that the relationship between parents and their extended family is always great, and in fact it can sometimes be very tough.
One mom recently shared on Reddit that she and her mother-in-law aren't seeing eye to eye in a major way when it comes to her daughter, and now she doesn't even want her infant daughter to be around her mother-in-law at all.
The mom explains that her baby is breastfed.
The mom sets up the story by explaining that her baby gets only breast milk at home.
"My daughter is breast fed exclusively and my MIL knows this," she begins. "When I bring my daughter to my MIL’s house I bring enough breast milk that she will have plenty with all the bottles and equipment for her."
She just found out her mother-in-law has been tossing the breast milk.
But her mother-in-law thinks the baby should have formula.
"I’ve recently found out she is only feeding my daughter formula because she believes breast milk is dirty and has been throwing out all my breast milk," the mom says.
Her mother-in-law's reasoning is pretty wild.
"She said to my face breast milk is dirty because mothers who have sex pollute their own bodies. She has never liked me and I’ve tried to get along with her but my husband just keeps his heads down and refuses to speak up in my defence."
Now she's hired a nanny.
"I’ve hired a babysit and won’t let my MIL babysit my daughter and my husband and I have been fighting because she is crying to him and he doesn’t see it was a big deal how she is fed."
The mom isn't backing down.
"I feel like my family is getting split apart," she explains. "I’m gritted my teeth and let my MIL walk all over me because of my husband but this is outrageous to me because it should be my choice how I feed my baby. But am I wrong for not letting her babysit her anymore because I don’t trust her to follow how I want to feed my baby."
Both the mother-in-law and the husband are a problem.
Plenty of people think the issue is twofold: The woman's mother-in-law needs to back down, and the woman's husband should stand up for her.
They also can't get behind the mother-in-law's reasoning at all.
One commenter asked: "How does MIL even think the baby got here??! How did her own children come to exist? How do people like this exist."
Hopefully the woman's husband will get it together.
As one person put it, the woman's husband is playing a big role in perpetuating his mother's stance:
"The only person splitting your family apart is a woman calling you dirty. You don't have to accept that. Your husband needs to get on your side ASAP or the implication is that he agrees with her treating you that way."
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
