Parenting advice from older generations is usually just slightly annoying. You nod politely when your aunt tells you to put cereal in a newborn’s bottle or when a random lady at the grocery store says your kid needs socks in the middle of summer. But sometimes that outdated advice crosses the line from mildly irritating to straight up illegal. One young mother recently took to Reddit in absolute panic after discovering her own mother was secretly playing bartender for her infant.
The Original Poster is a hardworking twenty year old mom living in Latin America. She is raising a five month old baby while navigating a rapidly declining economy. Because she desperately needs to work to provide for her child, she relied heavily on her own mother for free childcare. For a while, the arrangement seemed like an absolute blessing. Having a trusted family member watch your baby while you clock in for a shift is usually the best case scenario for a young working parent.
Like most first time parents, the Original Poster was incredibly diligent about her baby’s health. She took every possible precaution during her pregnancy and maintained those strict standards after giving birth. She wanted to make sure her little boy was as healthy and safe as humanly possible. She thought her mother was completely on the same page. She was horribly wrong.
Recently, the illusion of safe childcare shattered completely. The young mother walked into the kitchen and caught her mom preparing the baby’s bottle. To her absolute horror, she realized her mother was actively pouring rum into the infant’s milk. Yes, actual literal alcohol. When the terrified mother freaked out and demanded to know what the hell she was doing, the grandmother just casually replied that she was putting a bit of ron in the milk like it was a completely normal recipe step.
The Original Poster reacted exactly how any sane parent would react. She immediately snatched the bottle away and dumped the spiked milk straight down the sink. Instead of realizing her massive mistake, the grandmother actually completely lost her temper. She started screaming at her daughter for wasting perfectly good milk. The two women got into a massive screaming match right there in the kitchen.
The grandmother then tried to defend her insane actions with the absolute worst excuse in the history of parenting. She boldly claimed that putting liquor in a baby bottle is a super common practice to make infants calm down and fall asleep faster. She insisted it does not hurt them at all. To make matters infinitely worse, she proudly admitted that she used to do the exact same thing to the Original Poster when she was a baby and pointed out that she turned out just fine.
The young mom was absolutely paralyzed by this confession. She quickly realized that this was not a one time mistake. The grandmother had been secretly feeding her five month old baby alcohol since the day he was born. Furthermore, the older woman was one hundred percent convinced she was right and saw absolutely no issue with intoxicating an infant.
Realizing her baby was in immediate danger, the Original Poster packed up her things and fled. She went straight to her boyfriend’s house to stay with him and his family. Moving out should have been the end of the drama, but toxic families always double down. Her mother has been blowing up her phone, screaming at her, and throwing wildly offensive insults at the boyfriend and his family. The grandmother is trying to manipulate her daughter by claiming the baby will literally not survive without her help.
The rest of the extended family has decided to join the circus. Relatives are aggressively defending the grandmother and trying to guilt trip the young mom. They keep throwing out the classic toxic phrase about how you only get one mother and warning her that she is going to regret this boundary forever. Even the seemingly nice mother in law is pushing back. While she has been graciously babysitting, she keeps telling the Original Poster she is being too hard on her mom because the rum trick is just a common thing from her generation.
Thankfully, the baby’s father is absolutely furious at the grandmother and is firmly standing by his girlfriend. The internet also rushed to validate this young mother. Giving liquor to a baby is not a quirky generational difference. It is child endangerment. An infant’s liver cannot process alcohol, and using rum as a sleep aid is incredibly dangerous. This mom did exactly what she needed to do to protect her child, and she should not let anyone guilt her into handing her baby back to a woman who treats a bottle like a happy hour cocktail.