‘Livid’ Widower Calls Police After Catching Mother-In-Law Breastfeeding His Newborn

May 23, 2022 by apost team

Being a parent is full of challenges, and it’s even harder for parents that have to do it on their own. There’s no shame in asking for a helping hand, but sometimes the help may come unwarranted or may not even be that impactful. For one father, he found himself having a difficult time with his mother-in-law who agreed to help him care for his daughter.

The dad went to Reddit in April 2022 to share his heartbreaking story and ask users for advice on a matter that was troubling him. The original poster (OP) explained that he is a widow as his wife, Anne, sadly passed away just a few minutes after their daughter Sammy was born. OP had previously taken an indefinite leave from work about three months prior to Sammy being born, as his wife was having a very difficult pregnancy and he wanted to be home to support her.

When OP found out that he would be returning to work, he needed to find a babysitter to take care of his daughter. However, his mother-in-law Sandra offered to do it instead. OP didn’t have any issues with this idea and happily gave Sandra a key to his house.

However, he discovered something disturbing a couple of weeks after Sandra started watching Sammy. It turned out that OP’s mother-in-law was sneakily breastfeeding his daughter. OP was stunned, to say the least, and immediately told her she couldn’t be Sammy’s nanny any longer.

Unfortunately, this was not the end of the issues between OP and Sandra, and it escalated to the point where he even had to get the police involved.

Starting off his Reddit post, OP said: “I am a widower. I lost my wife (Anne 34) just minutes after she gave birth to our first baby (Sammy).” He explained how Anne had had a difficult pregnancy, so he went on an indefinite leave from work for several months. At the time of his posting, Sammy was 4 months old and OP was returning to work. 

At first, he tried to find a nanny to watch Sammy, but OP’s mother-in-law Sandra insisted that she could babysit the child herself. “So I said yes and gave her a copy of the house keys,” OP explained. Sandra would arrive 30 minutes before he left for the day and then would stay for dinner and put Sammy to bed.

Everything was going well at first until OP noticed that Sammy wasn’t eating as much and her formula was barely touched. When OP asked Sandra why this was happening, he was shocked to hear the answer. He explained:

“She said she’s trying to breastfeed my daughter. At first I thought she was joking then I realized she wasn’t. She said Sammy needs to latch for a few minutes every day to ‘activate’ her milk production. I almost lost it, I told her she cannot do that, and she needs to stop.”

Sandra promised she would stop, but OP caught her trying to breastfeed his daughter again. He told Sandra she’s no longer allowed to babysit Sammy but didn’t ask for his house key back. After taking a week off from work, OP was fortunate enough to find a new nanny, but she stopped coming by just two days after being hired.

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“I called her and she said my ‘mother’ fired her the day before,” OP explained. “I asked her to describe the woman and I was livid when I realized it was Sandra.” The mother-in-law had used her key to come into the house and fire the nanny on the spot.

Sandra arrived shortly after and accused OP of hiring an “incompetent” nanny and even threatened to call Child Protective Services (CPS) for “endangering” Sammy.

“We argued back and forth before I called the police and she was charged with trespassing,” OP said.

He continued: 

“I know my MIL is grieving the loss of her daughter, I am too. But she crossed the line when she disregarded my wishes.”

OP explained that his sister-in-law and brother-in-law had both told him how wrong it was to call the police on their mom, which left him wondering if he made a mistake.

However, Redditors assured OP that he was right to take serious action against his mother-in-law. One user commented: “Her trying to breastfeed your daughter without your permission is gross and completely wrong. Beyond that she FIRED YOUR NANNY? I’d ask for your key back and set some serious boundaries.”

Another user said: “MIL’s grief is going in a dangerous direction. You need to take drastic action, and MIL should not have access to your daughter until she has been in therapy for some time. Also, change your locks.”

OP took everyone’s advice to heart and called CPS to let them know about the situation. He also said that his mom, who is a retired family law attorney, was helping out with caring for Sammy and looking at what further actions they should take.

Do you think this dad went too far with calling the police on his mother-in-law? Or was he right for being so concerned? Let us know, and feel free to send this to your family and friends.