It’s fairly-well established by now that kissing an unvaccinated (and even vaccinated) baby on the face could be a dangerous thing by way of germs and transferring illnesses.
But that doesn’t mean everyone accepts… science.
For instance, one recent mum has shared this week that she’s combating her mother-in-law, who’s giving her a tough time concerning the “kissing rule” she’s imposed on the family.
And by struggling we mean the MIL has accused her daughter-in-law of a harsh double standard.
“Did your doctor update the foundations?”
The brand new mum explains her situation in a parenting forum:
“My husband and I actually have a six-week-old daughter. She’s our first baby and the primary grandchild in each of our families.
“We were advised by our pediatrician to not allow anyone besides ourselves to kiss our baby for the primary 8-12 weeks minimum. This has been communicated to each of our families who’ve been respectful of this (in addition to our other boundaries/rules) despite a little bit little bit of grumbling about it from his side.”
But unfortunately, that acceptance didn’t last long.
“Last weekend we were over at my in-laws’ house and I had just finished breastfeeding my daughter, so she was all sleepy. I kissed her brow before settling her to nap on my chest.
“My MIL noticed and immediately remarked on it in an excellent passive-aggressive manner: ‘Oh, I’m so glad that we’re in a position to kiss [baby] now! Did your pediatrician update the foundations?’
“She then accused me of violating the foundations by kissing my very own baby. I told her that the suggestion was that nobody besides myself and my husband kiss our daughter, and she or he argued and heavily implied that I used to be being dishonest because I’d previously said ‘no one can kiss the child’ relatively than “no one but husband and I can kiss the child.”
Eventually, the MIL called the mum a “hypocrite” and stormed out of the room. Although she did attempt a weak apology later, she had a rare request:
“She asked me if I might avoid kissing my baby in front of her until she’s allowed to accomplish that as well, since it’s upsetting to see me doing that and knowing that she will be able to’t.”
Naturally, the mum said no.
“I’m personally not going to stop kissing my very own baby for the sake of her feelings. MIL is asking me disrespectful and a hypocrite and has gotten SIL on board with this as well. AITA?”
“Will she ask you to stop breastfeeding in front of her since she doesn’t get to?”
The comments on the post were overwhelmingly in support of the brand new mum.
“What’s next, is she going to ask you to stop breastfeeding in front of her since she doesn’t get to do it too? She must back off,” wrote one.
One other advised, “In all honesty, your spouse must take care of this. The rule should at all times at all times be: ‘your parent, your problem’ (excepting those handful of situations where the in-laws just like the spouse greater than their very own kid).”
And this supporter said, “You don’t have a baby kissing problem, you’ve a mother-in-law problem.”
Finally, this mum added in agreement: “That is absurd. You want to just limit contact with these nut jobs until your baby has had her immunizations. Your husband must step up here and deal along with his relatives.”
