New Mom Called 'Cruel' For Confronting Her Brother For Stealing Her Milk From Their Mom's Freezer — 'This Is Bizarre Right?'
Has he never heard of formula?
MiloStankovic / Getty Images via Canva, Pikul Noorod, Nor Gal, PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock Being a new parent is an incredibly difficult adjustment, and when parents find shortcuts that work, they tend to take them. But one new dad's timesaver was definitely outside the box, and it left his sister creeped out and angry.
A new mom caught her brother stealing her breast milk.
Now we know what you're thinking as you shriek into the nearest pillow and pray for a means of erasing that sentence from your memory. But don't worry, it's not a fetish or anything. But it is definitely over a line for many people, and the brother's take on the whole thing honestly makes it... almost weirder.
A 26-year-old mom who wrote into Reddit had her first baby four months ago, and like many new moms, she had trouble with breastfeeding because her baby wouldn't latch. "So, I've been exclusively pumping her entire life," she writes. In order to not have to continue pumping for the next two years, she's been trying to pump ahead of her daughter's needs and freeze the excess.
RELATED: Mom Reveals She Caught Friend Nursing Her Infant Son On Two Separate Occasions
Photo: Reddit
But of course, that's a lot of milk to manage, and she and her husband live in a "small condo" with just their refrigerator's freezer. Luckily, her mom has a big chest freezer, and "she was more than happy to help."
The mom's 22-year-old brother and 20-year-old girlfriend, A, also live at her mother's house, however, and were pregnant at the time as well. "My mom made a weird comment... about how A wasn't going to be 'as committed' to breastfeeding as I have been," she writes, "but that it was okay because she could always feed my nephew some of my breastmilk from the freezer."
Um... she can what now? As you might imagine, the new mom was "floored" at the suggestion and said she'd store the milk at her dad's house instead, but her mother assured her it was no big deal and she wasn't serious. "The subject was quickly dropped after that but I had a bad feeling." And you can probably guess where this is going.
Photo: Reddit
The new mom's brother started stealing her breastmilk and feeding it to his baby.
Okay, so not as bad as a fetish but still... *primal scream* Shortly after her brother and A's baby boy was born, the new mom was helping them get settled in and showed A how to use her breast pump. Casual as anything, her brother said, "Thanks for the milk! A hasn't tried to pump or breastfeed yet, so all the baby has eaten is your stuff."
The new mom had whatever dismayed reaction you're having while reading this. She was especially confused because her brother and A had been given donor milk at the hospital. So why were they using hers instead? "We preferred to have the fresh stuff," he told her, so they made "an executive decision" to use hers. Like it was no big deal!
Photo: Reddit
She accused her brother of stealing and lying about it, and "went home fuming," she writes, which frankly seems like an under-reaction. She then hatched a plan to rectify the situation.
The mom's family called her 'cruel' for taking her breastmilk back.
As one would, the new mom went straight back to her mom's house, gathered up all of her breastmilk, and took it to her father's. But before she did, she dressed her brother down for taking her milk and lying about it and told off A for not even trying to learn how to feed her baby herself.
Photo: Reddit
Her brother was "disappointed," she writes, "and said that my milk was the only way they could provide for their baby." He explain to her that they "couldn't afford formula." She told him that if A would actually try, she would likely have more than enough breastmilk supply. She then took her milk and left.
But when she got to her father's, she discovered that there were 96 ounces of her breastmilk missing. "Either my mom or my brother had [hidden] some additional milk." Breastfeeding issues are super common, as the video below explains, and many moms find the process very confusing.
But... stealing someone else's milk is obviously not the answer, right? Well, her family didn't agree. Despite the deeply weird and egregious goings-on, her family blames her, not themselves. Her mom says it was "cruel" of her to take her milk back when she "could just pump a few extra weeks" instead of "depriving my nephew." The mom asked her fellow Redditors, "This is bizarre right?" Um, yes. Yes, it very much is, ma'am!
People were astonished that the mom's family was so blasé about stealing her breast milk.
Several Reddit users pointed out how much work—including mental and emotional energy—the new mom would have had to put in to produce that much milk.
"I have [exclusively pumped] for 2 children for 23 months. The time, energy, and mental toll it takes to pump for a baby is impossible to understand unless you've done it," one empathetic person wrote. "The audacity of anyone, even family, presuming they have a right to your child's food is horrendous and, quite frankly, rage-inducing. I'd be no contact for a while and then slowly move to low contact."
Others pointed out what seems to be a classic case of favoritism on the part of the new mom's mother, and they suggested she keep an eye on her now that there are grandkids around, or maybe even reduce contact.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social media and human interest topics.