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Motherhood can be very challenging for new moms, especially when they have to leave their newborns in the care of someone else. Having family nearby to help out is usually a godsend, but in the case of one pair of sisters, it's led to a family feud.
One of the siblings, a 22-year-old, explained on Reddit that both she and her 27-year-old sister recently had babies. She had to get surgery and since her 3-week-old's father isn't in the picture, the new mom's sister offered to help out and babysit free of charge during the three days the woman had to be in the hospital. However, after she was released from the hospital and went to get her son, the new mom found her sister breastfeeding him.
The woman wrote that she didn't have a problem with that to begin with, noting, "It was probably easier to [breastfeed] him than make bottles, but she told me after she had thrown out all of the 'garbage' I was feeding him and she was going to pump and donate milk to him. I was kind of in shock so I didn't react straight away but I went to the bathroom and called the police on her."
The new mom continued, "Apparently what she did wasn't a crime, and the child is being fed so they couldn't even do anything about it. My sister then blew up at me, saying it was completely wrong of me to call the police on her 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."
As for the consequences, the woman explained, "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. She ended up storming out and blocked me on everything. Our parents were able to replace two 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 then asked commenters if they think she did anything wrong.
Reactions were pretty mixed, with one person stating, "That’s $700 worth of the formula my baby drinks. I would be livid," and another adding, "I think the sister is evil. 'I was only trying to help,' no she was only trying to control her sister, and how she raises her child, and when her property destruction which directly affects the health of the child was not well received she became vindictive." Someone else chimed in, "She just literally dumped hundreds of dollars of formula that YOU BOUGHT because of her own personal opinions on formula. I would have done the same thing, in your situation." Not everyone was supportive though. One commenter wrote, "I'm frankly shocked at the amount of people that think it's ok to call the authorities over something so minor. Yes, sister is an a*****e but calling the police?"
Some people wrote in that a crime was indeed committed. One said, "That’s at a minimum theft by unlawful disposition!" and another agreed writing, "Yeah, I’m not sure what the heck these cops are thinking. This is most definitely a crime!" but then a cop gave some insight into it saying, "I am retired law enforcement. There is no law, that I can think of, and I have tried, that says you can't breastfeed another person's child. To my knowledge even if they have left instructions not to do so, if that infant is in their care. As for throwing out the formula, unless the sister was stupid enough to admit to it, it is going to be extremely difficult to prove if it has already been picked up. Believe me, I have been on some weird calls, but I have never had one like this."
You can see more of what people had to say on Reddit.