This Woman’s Treatment Of Her Own Daughter Will Leave You Speechless

All new moms have been on the receiving end of unwanted advice or flat-out criticism when they bring their baby home.

It can come from friends or even well-meaning family members, but these unsolicited comments can have a drastic effect on a new mom who is doing her best to learn the ropes of the most difficult job in the world.

Imagine then that the person who should be your go-to for advice and support — the one person who should understand your parenting style and wishes — not only offers criticism but cruelty in the face of your parenting decisions.

This shocking story involves a new mom who was not only shamed for breastfeeding her newborn – which has unfortunately become a common occurrence – but she was thrown out of her own mother’s home for nursing her little one without covering up!

Café Mom reported:

The anonymous mom explained that she took her kids over to her mother’s house for a visit and while they were having lunch in the kitchen, her 3-week-old daughter got hungry. Her newborn is exclusively breastfed, and this mom shared with Breastfeeding Mama Talk’s Facebook page what happened when she went to feed her.

“I took her in the living room, got her to latch and sat back down at the table to finish my meal while it was still warm. My mom didn’t say anything at first but when my stepdad came in from mowing the lawn, she threw me a dirty look and asked me to get my blanket and cover her,” she wrote. “When I politely declined, she told me it was her house and she wanted me to cover up.”

The young mom let her mother know that the baby got fussy and overheated when she was covered up, but the mother failed to sympathize.  It is common for infants to kick off nursing blankets, or to fuss and stop nursing when covered.  Forcing someone to cover up while nursing is akin to all of us wearing a blanket over our heads while eating our meals.

Café Mom continued:

“I told her my daughter gets sweaty and uncomfortable under the blanket and if it was that much of an issue that I wasn’t going to do that to her, we would leave, and she said fine, leave,” she wrote. “So I started to get my kids ready to go and she said, ‘You’re really going to leave because you’re in MY house and I want you to cover up? I don’t care how you nurse in your own home, but at my house you need to cover up. No one wants to see that.'” 

Currently, it is legal to breastfeed in public without covering up in 47 states and the District of Columbia, with Virginia and South Dakota offering exemption from indecency laws.  The only state with more strict regulations is Idaho.

While most women do choose to cover up out of modesty while nursing in public, it is certainly within a woman’s right to choose not to.  Sadly, shaming women for breastfeeding in public, a natural act of love between mother and child, is a regular occurrence on social media.

In the case of this young mom, she should have expected to feel welcome to openly nurse her baby in her mother’s home.  One would think the baby’s grandmother, of all people, would want her daughter and grandchild to feel comfortable and secure in this environment.

It is bad enough when a woman is confronted with unsolicited comments or criticisms by strangers, but much more hurtful when it comes from one of your closest family members.  As a mother herself, this grandmother should have remembered how tired and overwhelmed a new mom is and offered whatever support she could.

And not only did Grandma shame her own daughter, she criticized her decision in front of her other grandchildren.  When the young mom refused to cover herself, she was told she could leave the house.

Café Mom reported:

Instead of letting her mother get away with shaming her in front of her other children for breastfeeding her newborn, this woman stood her ground. “I told her yes and she made me look like the bad guy to my older two children by telling them I was leaving because I was mad at her and she was sorry they couldn’t stay to watch the end of the movie she just put on for them,” she wrote.

After Grandma involved the kids, Mom snapped a photo to capture what it looked like while she fed her daughter that was causing her mom such distress. She decided to share the snapshot as well as her story as proof that even moms who have no visible skin exposed still get harassed for breastfeeding.

The original social media post received dozens of comments defending this new mom, and wondering what on earth this grandmother was thinking in the way she treated her own daughter.

This mom chose to protect her rights and the rights of her baby by standing up to her own mother, a situation that must have caused a great deal of sadness and frustration.  This is especially ironic since she would have been legally entitled to breastfeed in a public place, but in the privacy of her mother’s home, she was presented with no other option but to leave.

What do you think of the grandmother’s callous attitude towards her daughter nursing in her home?  What would you do in this situation?  Leave us your thoughts.