Grandma jokes about feeding 7-week-old baby cereal, gets offended when daughter-in-law doesn't want her to babysit: 'The family is saying I'm gatekeeping the baby'

Becoming a parent for the first time is a mightily overwhelming experience for even the strongest of individuals. All of a sudden, this tiny person depends on you for their every need, and if you happen to be the one who gave birth, you also have your own physical recovery to be concerned about, too.

Taking this into consideration, the number one thing that most new parents need is a good support network, usually involving family members. However, while they may be eager to help, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are actually going to be helpful. Even within families, people can have vastly different ideas of what the best ways to raise a baby are. This can be especially true of the different generations, who, a lot of the time, have listened to completely different advice from one another. It is easy for this to become a source of tension at an already stressful period.

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AIO for refusing to let my MIL babysit after she joked about putting cereal in my newborn’s bottle?

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This was an issue that one new mom ran into after her mother-in-law got involved with her and her husband's baby in the weeks after the birth. The grandma made a joke about adding cereal to the baby's bottle so they would sleep better, which concerned her daughter-in-law.
Reflecting on the comment, she told her husband that she didn't want his mom spending time alone with the baby, and he agreed. However, she was angry upon finding this out, and the young mom wanted to know if she was being too harsh.
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Outsiders reassured her that her fears were valid.

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