If you, dear readers, are anything like the dear Redditors on the “Am I The A—hole? (AITA?)” subreddit, you’re about to have a lot of feelings. So prepare for the possible secondhand cringe, or the fury, or the endless eye-rolling (or a little bit of each).
A woman joined Reddit to talk about an unintended outcome of having her in-laws visit. Her 15-month-old son is still nursing, she explained, and she gives him breast milk for more than just his bottle.
“I don’t see the point in giving him cow’s milk and freezing pumped milk so I just put my breastmilk over his cereal or in recipes I’m going to make him,” she said.
Today, she prepared her son’s cereal with breast milk, fed him some, and then left to wake up her oldest child while her father-in-law stayed in the kitchen.
And you know where this is going…
Next Thing She Knew
This mom who originally posted (the “OP”) came downstairs with her daughter and found her FIL finishing her son’s cereal. Eeek! OK, go ahead. Start feeling the feels. Super uncomfy? Super unfazed?
“I laughed a little but went along with my morning,” OP said.
Later, OP’s FIL told her the milk in his grandson’s cereal tasted weird and asked if it was “off.” That’s when the Big Reveal happened.
The Family’s Reaction
“I swear he looked like he was going to keel over and vomit,” OP said. “He was angry and asked why I’d watch him drink it and not tell him.”
OP’s mother-in-law took her husband’s side, pointing out that OP should have seen this coming. Apparently he’s known for finishing people’s meals, and she should have told him beforehand. Meanwhile, OP’s husband is “on damage control” and “understands all POVs.”
“I do agree that I should have at least told him when he was eating it but tbh I thought he saw me tip it from the bottle,” she said. “So, aita for not telling them I make his cereal with breast milk?”
Reddit’s Reaction
Reddit has a whole bunch of stances on this one. The top comment has 2.9 thousand upvotes and several opinions rolled into one.
“You’re not the AH for feeding your child but you are the AH because you saw FIL eating it and LAUGHED instead of saying something … You thought it was amusing … YTA/ESH for not saying anything to your FIL and assuming he saw you pour it from the bottle … He shouldn’t be eating after kids but OP is the bigger AH for letting him continue.”
“Nah, maybe FIL should stop eating other people’s food without asking. Serves him right,” another person said, opening a whole can of worms. Some Redditors said it’s “totally normal” for adults to finish kids’ meals, while others pointed out that swapping germs was probably worse than the taboo of drinking breast milk.
“Who the heck wants to finish a toddler’s meal? Toddlers do gross things with their food — all kinds of drooling and smooshing … Eeeeeww! OP you’re NTA. I hope he learned a lesson.”
“Yeah that was my first thought. Dude is funny about the milk but doesn’t mind a toddler coughing in cereal, which is probably all soggy and mushy by this point anyway. Weird.”
Others said maybe he grew up learning never to waste food. Or perhaps the germs don’t phase him. “My kid has vomited IN MY MOUTH,” one person said. “Short of her putting sh*t in her plate, I’m gonna eat her leftovers. Sometimes that’s the only meal I get to eat.”
Once Redditors worked their way out of that rabbit hole, they found themselves in the, “Should a 15-month-old be having breast milk and/or cow’s milk?” debate. Once you wade through all that (TLDR: talk to your pediatrician), you’ll find people who are back on topic. Some people were really angered by the thought of unknowingly ingesting someone else’s bodily fluid, while others were more laid back.
“But it’s funny and not harmful,” one person said. “I feel like she was trying to save him the embarrassment by not saying anything. Honestly this was ultimately just one of those moments where you should probably laugh and try to communicate better in the future. FIL is being the AH for being upset. He got himself into the situation and there is no use getting mad about it now.”
“Sure, it’s not ‘harmful’ to feed other people your bodily fluids without telling them, or to put your bodily fluids in food you know they may eat, but it sure is disgusting.”
“It most certainly can be harmful. There are so many illnesses and medications that pass thru breast milk,” another said. (Another thing to consult with your pediatrician about.)
While Redditors continue to go round and round, pumping through all the ways this relationship might be spoiled, we’ll end on this comment that was [rightly?] left in bold: “There is one rule with food: IF you take food without asking, it is your own fault when there are ingredients you don’t like.“
Before you go, check out some of Reddit’s most horrifying money disaster stories.
Leave a Comment