Aunt borrows newborn nephew without asking the parents, explains why she thinks it’s fine
Many siblings borrow one another’s things without asking. But most draw the line at their human children. Heather is different.
Babies are great. When there’s a new addition to the family, extended family members are always keen to come and see their grandchild/niece/nephew/cousin.
But Heather Delaney takes this urge to meet her extended family members to the extreme.
“I don’t wait for my sister to ask before I take her baby.” – Heather Delaney.
Many would think that Heather’s actions are basically criminal. Isn’t this literally napping a kid, aka kidnapping? Even if she’s close with her sister, you can’t just take someone’s child without their permission. After all, babies, are more important than hairbrushes. They have their own consciousnesses and everything!
But luckily, all potential criminal activities are avoided, thanks to the setup that Heather and her sister have.
When she shows up at her sister’s home, Heather picks up her baby nephew and takes him to the bedroom. Then Heather puts on her favorite TV show. Over the next few hours, she’ll do stuff like change his diapers, bottle feed him and generally look after him.
Because she does this, Heather’s sister knows that she has some unexpected free time. In many ways, this is an incredible courtesy that Heather is offering.
“She knows that she has that hour (or two. After all, I’m in no hurry) and she has that time to do as she pleases.” – Heather Delaney.
It may sound a little weird still. After all, who visits their sister just to take their child and walk into a room and not communicate? But for these sisters, it works.
“Me, her, and him? We all come out of that hour (or two) feeling incredible. It’s a beautiful pause from the world for all three of us.” – Heather Delaney.
Heather realizes that her sister doesn’t like to ask for help. So instead, Heather takes it upon herself to help out.
Heather is also a mother.
And as someone who had kids before her sister, she knows what it’s like to feel as if she has to do as much childrearing as possible. She is determined to not let her sister burn herself out.
And Heather really wants other people to do what she’s doing.
Sisters, brothers and friends, in her opinion, should also step up and tell the parents of newborns that they’re looking after their babies for a while. Not ask. Tell.
In many ways, Heather’s logic is sound.
Let’s face it, most people don’t like to rely on others. Therefore, they take on too much. New parents are especially susceptible to doing this!
“But what about if we didn’t wait for them to get burnt out What about if we stepped in and helped the mothers before the exhaustion set in?” – Heather Delaney.
Heather learned this approach from her own mother-in-law. She also would show up, sometimes unannounced, and look after her grandchildren for a while. It really helped Heather adjust to motherhood.
Then Heather posted her novel approach to “aunting” on Facebook. It soon made quite an impact.
To date, it has gained over 3,400 likes. It also has more than 3,100 shares and 600 comments. People have been saying things like this:
So if you have family members with newborns, take it upon yourself to look after their kids now and then.
Don’t ask. Do. (But of course, don’t make it seem like the kids have been kidnapped! There’s a way to go about this.)
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