A stunned mother has been left questioning whether she did the right thing after she called the police to report her sister for breastfeeding her child.
To be clear, this was the mother's child her sister was breastfeeding - aka the sister's nephew.
It all started when the 22-year-old mum and her 27-year-old sister gave birth to babies within two weeks of each other, after which the mum decided to use formula to feed her baby, while her sister went down the breastfeeding route.
Advert
A few weeks after giving birth, the mum had to undergo surgery and took up her sister's offer to babysit while she was in hospital for three days.
In a post on Reddit, the mum explained how things took a turn when she arrived home.
"When I came home today, I walked into my son on my sisters breast," she said.
Advert
The mum went on to explain she initially didn't have an issue with the sight, admitting it was 'probably easier to [breastfeed] him than make bottles', but that changed when her sister revealed she'd 'thrown out all of the "garbage" [the mum] was feeding him' - aka her supply of formula.
The sister announced she was going to use a breast pump to donate milk to her nephew rather than just leaving the mum and son be, with the declaration leaving the mum 'kind of in shock'.
She said: "I didn't react straight away but I went to the bathroom and called the police on her. Apparently what she did wasn't a crime, and the child is being fed so they couldn't even do anything about it."
Advert
The mum went on to explain that her sister then 'blew up' at her, telling her it was 'completely wrong' of her to call the police when she was 'just trying to help'.
"I told her she dumped 14 cans of formula without even consulting me and currently had nothing to replace it with, just plans to," the mum added.
"She now wants me to pay her for the babysitting she did but I told her I can't even afford to replace the formula while I'm on maternity leave so I won't be paying her for the babysitting."
Advert
The sister ended up 'storming out' of the house and blocking the mum to prevent her from getting in touch.
The mum continued: "Our parents were able to replace 2 of the cans she threw out but can't do much else. They also think I was a d**k for calling the police on her because getting a record could affect her government job and therefore my Nephew."
She added that her sister wouldn't have replaced the formula herself as she is 'completely against it', and 'the only way she could have been feeding [the] son over the next few weeks would be to put him on the boob, which would take time away' from the mum.
After sharing her story, Redditors showed their support for the mum and insisted she was 'not the a**hole' in the situation.
Advert
"She just literally dumped hundreds of dollars of formula that YOU BOUGHT because of her own personal opinions on formula," one person wrote. "I would have done the same thing, in your situation."
Topics: Crime, Food and Drink, Parenting, Reddit
Emily Brown