A post-baby body can take a little adjusting to as it heals from birthing a human life, and the last thing new moms need is constant pressure to "bounce back." Between the internal and external pressure, the only thing that could make it worse is having this judgement come from loved ones but sometimes, family members don't seem to get that. Take a mother-in-lawĀ described by oneĀ RedditorĀ who told the new momĀ to do whatever it takes to lose her baby weight.
Although it all went down 10 years ago, the woman explains that her wounds are still fresh.
A post onĀ r/mildlynomil tells the whole tale. The mom explained that she was only two months postpartum and "barely hanging on" when her MIL decided to strike in the worst possible way.
"My baby had colic, my husband worked every hour of the week, we had just moved and I knew no one in town, breastfeeding was a struggle, and my pre-pregnancy anxiety was manifesting as some seriously complex postpartum feelings," she wrote.
Plus, the original poster (OP) was feeling a little weird about her postpartum body.
She was carrying 20 extra pounds than before she got pregnant and was "not feeling very good about it."
What she needed was some love, understanding, and support.
What she got was a card of herself in her wedding dress — from five years before she was pregnant.
The sender was her MIL, who thought it was wise to give the extremely stressed OP some unsolicited advice.
"The text of her message suggested that I put the picture of myself up on the fridge to 'inspire' myself to lose weight," she recalled in the post. ā'Look at those arms, look at that little waist! I think youād feel a lot happier about everything if you lost the baby weight,' the card said."
The OP did not take her letter kindly.
TBH, she thought the whole thing was really rude.
"It was full of annoying, insulting and frankly unreasonable suggestions about how I might do it, but mostly Iāll never forget the last line of the card," she wrote. "It said 'if all else fails, just remember: nothing tastes as good as skinny feels!'ā
"So basically, donāt eat so that you can be skinny again — seven weeks after the baby is born," the mom explained in her post. "Iāve never really forgiven her for it."
The comment section was up-in-arms over the OP's mother-in-law.
"What a stupid thing to say. Especially when you were breastfeeding!" one person wrote. "Like yeah, a starving baby and starving mama is such a good idea, because you want me to be skinny MIL!"
"To insult your body after it's achieved THE most amazing thing in the world is so shallow, petty and malicious," a second commenter wrote. "To go so far as to send a card with points is infuriating. No wonder it's still on your mind all these years later."
"I see stories like this all the time about MILs (sometimes mothers) saying that a woman needs to lose their post pregnancy weight! I hate it," someone else wrote in. "Like is it because these women are so insecure that they need to pick on someone else who happens to be more vulnerable because they just had a baby?Ā
But we think that person's final thought said it best: "Itās messed up."
It really is. Hopefully the OP told her MIL exactly where she could send that card of hers. And then promptly ignored her advice.
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