One woman on Reddit, who happened to be breastfeeding, found herself in a tricky situation and decided to nurse her niece without asking her mother’s permission first. Right now, her sister-in-law is upset and folks on Reddit are torn.
The woman recently took to the popular sub-Reddit forum “Am I The A**hole” to ask whether or not she was in the wrong for breastfeeding her 4-month-old niece while she was babysitting.
It seems her brother and sister-in-law had come to town and left the baby in her care for several hours to attend a function. While babysitting, her niece began crying because she was hungry.
“During the time they were gone my niece starts crying because she was hungry,” the Reddit user wrote.
“Unfortunately we ran out of formula and don’t really rely on it in our household as I nurse my own baby most of the time. I really did not have any other alternative except nurse my niece which I did a few times because they were gone for quite long.”
The Reddit user went on to explain that she would not have been able to run to the store to buy more formula with two babies with her, otherwise she would have given the little one a bottle.
And when the couple returned from their outing, the Reddit user explained that she had nursed their daughter — and her sister-in-law was not at all impressed.
“I will try to keep this short , please bear with me.
Me and SIL gave birth around the same time this year , so we have babies of similar age, just that mine was born a month earlier than hers.
2 days ago , brother and SIL came over for lunch with their 4 month old. Everything was cordial between us till then.
After lunch , SIL and brother hands over my niece to me for babysitting so that they could attend a formal event held by SIL’s extended family near my location.
During the time they were gone , my niece starts crying because she was hungry. Unfortunately we ran out of formula and don’t really rely on it in our household as I nurse my own baby most of the time.
I really did not have any other alternative except nurse my niece which I did a few times because they were gone for quite long.
They come back and me and SIL had a casual conversation till I tell her that niece was hungry and we ran out of formula, so I nursed her. SIL looks at me sternly with a hint of disgust and berates me for nursing niece.
I did not retaliate because I was too shocked at why she would be so agitated when all I did was feed her child. If I had formula I would have used it for niece but I ran out of it and it was only me , my child and baby niece. How am I going to leave them alone and then run to the supermarket to buy formula?
I don’t have two seater baby prams either so I can’t bring them along to the supermarket. If SIL had a preference she should have brought some formula in the baby essentials pack she passed to me.
There were only diapers, rash cream and pacifier in the bag she gave me, no formula powder. So am I just supposed to let niece be hungry till they come back? I don’t know what she expected me to do.
SIL has not been attending my calls since this and honestly I feel bad, I want to apologize but SIL has not been responding. This got me thinking AITA?”