The internet is pretty horrified after hearing about a mom who expects her 5-year-old daughter to sleep through the night when she falls asleep at 3 p.m. One day, the 5-year-old took a nap after school, and apparently, the mom just expected her to keep sleeping until morning without eating dinner or even a snack.
In reality, though, the child woke up from her nap around 7 p.m. and was hungry (after all, she fell asleep at 3 p.m. and didn’t have dinner). The young girl’s aunt offered her a snack, which, for some reason, totally infuriated the mom.
The aunt explained that she was already preparing food when she gave her niece a snack.
In a post on Reddit that has since been deleted, the aunt explained that she started to prepare something for dinner around 7 p.m., and her niece woke up. The young girl’s mom blamed the aunt for “waking her up” because she had wanted her daughter to sleep through the whole night.
About two or three hours later, the girl still hadn’t had anything to eat that night. Meanwhile, the aunt was in the kitchen prepping an apple cake, and her niece asked if she could have an apple.
“She was hungry and hadn’t eaten, so of course I say yes,” the aunt wrote. Additionally, she asked her niece if she wanted the apple cut up, which she did.
They ended up enjoying a snack on the couch together.
After cutting up the apple for her niece, the aunt put the slices in a bowl and grabbed a snack for herself as well. They sat on the couch together for the brief snack — until the girl’s mom interrupted because it was the daughter’s bedtime.
Sticking up for her niece, the aunt responded with, “She’s still eating and only has 3 apple slices left.” She added that her niece “hasn’t eaten all night.”
This made the mom angry.
Based on her reaction, it appears the mom felt like her sister was overstepping here. The mom accused her sister of “disrespecting her boundaries,” then raised her voice and said, “Who’s the parent?”
The aunt said her sister used “the rudest tone of voice” when she said this, which caught her off guard. “I just wanted my niece to have a snack so she’s not hungry before bed,” she explained in her post.
From the aunt’s perspective, the mom was too busy scrolling on her phone all night to feed her child. Later, after the 5-year-old went to bed, the aunt asked the mom why she was so upset about the snack. The mom accused her sister of “trying to get her to watch TV and stay up with you.” But really, the aunt just didn’t want the child to be hungry.
Redditors sided with the aunt and called the mom ‘completely unhinged.’
Many of the people who reacted to the post couldn’t believe that the mom would put her daughter down for a nap at 3 p.m. and expect her to sleep all night without dinner or even a snack. “She thought her child didn’t need to eat supper?” one person questioned. “Is this her first day as a parent?”
Another person speculated that the mom was hoping to opt out of parenting responsibilities for the night. “This woman decided she was done parenting for the day and got upset that HER CHILD didn’t quietly pretend to not exist for the rest of the night,” the commenter wrote.
To many Redditors, the whole thing seemed “disturbing and upsetting.” A third person wrote, “How long does your sister expect your niece to sleep? Coming home from school and going straight to bed and not feeding her anything when she seems to expect the child to sleep over 15 hours seems rather excessive.”
“Who’s the parent? Apparently, no one,” a fourth person concluded. Your sister was too busy tending to her phone to parent anyone. I hope this was a one off, I feel so incredibly bad for that kid if that’s how she’s forced to live.”
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.
