Giving birth and bringing a baby into your family stirs up a lot of emotions. Not just for you and your partner, but for your families as well. Creating new familial bonds can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your family. While some may see a newborn as a fresh start, others — like grandparents — may see it as a second chance or redemption for their own parenting journeys.
One woman on social media shared that her husband’s mother made concerning comments about her newborn baby while she was still in the hospital. The older woman evidently sees her new grandchild as another chance at motherhood for herself, and the new mom quickly called her out.
The new grandma swooped in shortly after the birth.
The new mom posted on Reddit, concerned she was overreacting about the whole situation. She explained that she had recently given birth to her first child. After a “rough labor,” she had an emergency C-section, which was a lot to handle.
“While I was still in recovery, my husband let his mom come to the hospital room to meet our son,” she said.
Her husband’s mother made a comment that stopped her in her tracks.
“I was groggy and out of it when she arrived, but I remember this very clearly: she picked him up, stared at him for a while, and said, ‘You’re my second chance. I won’t screw it up this time.’”
According to the woman, her husband didn’t hear what his mother said. When she asked her mother-in-law for clarification, the woman said “Let’s just say I wasn’t the mom I should’ve been to [husband’s name], but now I get to do it right.”
Those words sent the new mom “over the edge.”
She made it clear to her MIL that her newborn was no one’s second chance at motherhood. The new mom quickly reminded the older woman who the baby’s mother is. And then she asked her MIL to leave the hospital. While the grandma tried to say she only meant her comment “spiritually,” the new mom asked a nurse to escort her out of the room.
Now, her MIL is causing family drama.
The woman said the family is now in an “uproar” after what happened. Her MIL is telling family members that the new mom “banned her from her grandchild’s birth,” and called her “emotionally unstable.”
According to the woman, her husband gets why his mother’s comments upset her, but he believes she shouldn’t have said anything at the hospital and waited until they got home to create boundaries.
People are praising the woman for standing her ground on the matter. Many commenters were quick to tell the woman that she did the right thing in creating that boundary early.
“This baby isn’t some redemption arc, she obviously doesn’t care about being a better mom to her son rather she just wants to ‘prove to herself’ while using someone else’s baby with NONE of the responsibilities,” one person wrote.
“Your MIL needs to understand you deserve grace when you’re in a hospital bed recovering,” another comment reads. “You could be the most irrational b—- in the world after a C-section and the appropriate thing for her to do is give you time, not going around complaining to everyone who will listen.”
Someone else wrote: “My husband says your husband’s an idiot. None of that was ok, and your husband should be supporting you fully, not letting his family dogpile you like this. I’m sorry you’re going through all this, when you should just be enjoying new motherhood.”
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.
