‘My mum-in-law wants me to stop breastfeeding so my baby can stay at hers – I refuse’

The grandma decked out a bedroom for the baby, but her mum doesn’t want her to spend the night away yet. Now the mum-in-law wants her to avoid breastfeeding for ‘longer than needed’ so she can stay over

A mum has insisted that her four-month-old daughter isn’t allowed to stay the night at her grandparents despite them decking out a whole new bedroom for her. Admitting that she doesn’t want to interrupt the child’s breastfeeding routine, the woman’s mother-in-law is really ‘upset’ that she can’t have her grandchild stay.

Taking to popular forum Mumsnet, the mum admitted to upsetting her in-laws after they showed off a new princess and unicorn-themed bedroom, which came at a big expense. The woman explained: “We went to our parents-in-laws for lunch on New Year’s Day and mother-in-law announced that she wanted to show us something upstairs.”

She went on: “So, we followed her and she proceeded to do a grand reveal of our daughter’s new bedroom, all bedecked with pink princesses and unicorns (not my taste but clearly a lot of effort gone in).

“She proceeded to request we make a start with her first sleepover next week.

“My daughter is just turning four months and getting her to bed is challenging at the moment (often resorting to co-sleeping), so I was a bit shocked and felt she’d jumped the gun a bit. We haven’t even discussed sleepovers yet.

“I basically told my mother-in-law that while the room looked great, it was much too soon to be having sleepovers. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll be keen on the idea for ages yet.

“Mother-in-law didn’t say much but was clearly a bit put out. Later on, she texted me to say she was upset as she had put in a lot of effort and was so looking forward to regular sleepovers.

“She asked when we could start. I said that as my daughter is breastfed and often co-sleeps it won’t be for quite some time.

“Yesterday, I thought about it and felt bad for mother-in-law and started to think maybe in a couple of months if daughter will take a bottle and isn’t co-sleeping so often we could try it and see how it goes.

“But then I caught sight of a text popping up on husband’s phone, so picked it up and read their conversation (yes I know I shouldn’t).

“Mother-in-law actually said to husband that ‘he mustn’t let me carry on breastfeeding longer than necessary in order to keep daughter from doing overnights at their house’!

“In a previous text she’d told him she had hoped to be doing overnights one-two times a week (erm, nope).”

Seeking advice, the mum questioned: “Am I being unreasonable or is she just nuts?”

Rushing to the comment section to share their advice, a Mumsnet user assured: “You are not being unreasonable” She’s a little baby! Breastfeed as long as you want to and stand firm on the sleepovers until you’re comfortable. She shouldn’t even be in a separate bedroom now anyway so it’s a moot point. Just tell her that.”

Meanwhile, a second wrote: “No she is too young, my eldest child started sleepovers just before his 3rd birthday. A four-month-old breastfed baby can’t sleepover. Stick firmly but kindly to your guns.”

Do you have a story? We want to hear it! Get in touch at [email protected]