🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
An excited grandparent is being slammed online after sharing their plans for a "welcome party" to host for their newborn grandchild.
Redditor u/Throwa676899 wrote about the new family tension on the subreddit "Am I The A**hole" in a post that has been voted on over 14,000 times.
The Redditor shared that they suggested the idea of a "welcoming party" to their son and daughter-in-law, offering to host the new parents and child in their home after his birth.
"[B]ut for some reason, she was against it and said she'd rather spend the first few weeks at home with her newborn," the Redditor wrote. "[N]ot only that but she said no to the welcoming party. My husband and I talked to my son and he said 'we'll see.'"
Recently, the grandparents found out from their nephew that the baby had been born two weeks prior but the parents decided to keep the news from the Redditor.
"[H]e and his wife lied then hid the date of birth from the family," the Redditor wrote. " I told him this was not acceptable, lying just because they didn't want a welcoming party and love and support being given from family."
The Redditor went on to say that not only were they disappointed but so were the other family members invited to the shindig.
According to VeryWellFamily, new parents can sometimes want to postpone visitors after a child is born—even grandparents—as they are "creating a protected period for forming a family unit."
Beyond this, VeryWellFamily said a parent's decision to keep visitors away could also be a matter of wanting privacy as the mother recovers from birth, explaining that nowadays new mothers are usually sent home 48 hours after birth. In the 1950s, stays of one week to 10 days were the norm.
There is also the matter of germs, which in an era of COVID-19 might be even more of a concern.
"'Welcoming party' is a nice way of saying 'exposing a new born to all sorts of diseases during a pandemic.'...," one commenter wrote.
The Redditor wrote that their son said the move was a "last resort" after the new parents felt as though the expectant grandparents were "pushing" leading the new mom to feel "uncomfortable."
"We had an argument and he ended the call upon saying I ruined his joy for his newborn," the Redditor wrote. "My husband started texting him since he stopped replying to our [phone calls] and now is threatening to block my nephew for tattling but I think that my nephew was decent enough to inform the family. [O]therwise God knows how long my son and his wife were going to hide their son just to keep us at arms length."
Commenters were quick to side with the new parents with one person telling the Redditor "...It's not about you... ."
"How many bloody posts are we going to have about people being offended that a woman—who just spent 9 months creating a human and then pushing it out of her vagina with all the possible complications that come along with childbirth—doesn't want a party and wants to spend some time alone with her newborn?" another commenter wrote.
"YTA," wrote another. "You are not the parent. Your son and his wife are. You don't get to dictate when, where, and who gets to meet his child."
VeryWellFamily wrote that for grandparents that are "lucky enough" to be able to visit and bond with a newborn grandchild, they should "try not to overlook the needs of the parents."
Newsweek contacted u/Throwa676899 for comment.
