Woman Criticized for 'Kidnapping' Grandson She Never Met

A woman was slammed after her daughter revealed she "kidnapped" her 3-year-old grandson and refused to make contact with his parents.

The Original Poster (OP), known as u/Open_Worldliness_732, posted about the situation in Reddit's popular "Am I The A**hole" forum where it received more than 17,800 upvotes and 1,200 comments. The post can be found here.

Family Abductions

Family abductions occur when a child, often under the age of 6, is taken by a parent or other family member without the guardian's permission or knowledge.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, most family abductions are committed by a parent attempting to deprive another guardian from custody or visitation of the child.

It is estimated that more than 60 percent of all AMBER alerts issued in 2020 were family abductions, with about 5 percent of missing child reports in 2020 being family abductions.

While many individuals believe a child is not in harm's way while with a parent, research has shown that family abductions can result in harmful effects on child victims and their families including emotional detachment, feeling betrayed and trust issues.

'Typical Narcissist'

In the post titled "AITA for refusing to stop saying my mother kidnapped my son?" the 32-year-old woman said she moved to her husband's home country about five years ago and had a son three years ago.

She explained that her mother, 52, is "controlling" and a "typical narcissist" who was against her moving out of the country.

Due to her mother's ill husband and the COVID-19 pandemic, she was unable to meet her son until recently and often complains that she was "cheated" out of "special time" with her first grandson.

While she wasn't keen on having her mom visit, the woman's husband convinced her it would be nice for their son to have a relationship with her.

"Well from the moment she arrived she complained—our house is too small, the garden is over looked etc," the post read. "She complained my son doesn't speak much [E]nglish and so she can't communicate with him. She complained that my son didn't want to hug her, that he wanted to stay with his paternal grandmother."

At one point during the visit, the woman's son spilled a drink and her mother "shouted" at him. When she told her they are taking a "gentle approach" to parenting, she "lost it" and told her she had "no idea how to raise a kid."

"I told her she needs to respect my methods or she can leave. She stopped but the whole rest of the day you could tell she was furious," the post read.

'I Called the Police'

In the early hours of the next morning, the woman was up with her son while she said her husband suffered stomach problems. After realizing her husband was out of medication, she ran to the pharmacy and left both her son and husband asleep on the couch.

"I was gone for 20mins but when I came back my mother's rental car was gone and so was my son while my husband was still asleep," the post read. "He was as shocked as I was they had gone. Tried my mother's mobile but no answer. After 45mins of me becoming increasingly hysterical I called the police who came out very fast and when I explained as above took things seriously."

The woman's mother arrived back at the home six hours later and told the police that she had permission to take the boy out for the day.

"I am currently 6 months pregnant and she said it must be pregnancy brain which the police seemed to accept," the post read.

She said police acted like the situation was solved since her son was back home safe. But after the police left, the woman told her mother to leave the house and that she never wanted to see her again.

'AITA?'

"She started telling family I kicked her out for no reason and she can't find a hotel and they blew up my phone to which I told them she had kidnapped my son," the post read.

She also told them that she plans on pursuing this with the police and that she is now being called an a**hole for saying her son was kidnapped when he was "taken on a day trip by his loving grandmother."

Some family members also told her that an "accusation like this" could affect her mother's job as a nurse.

In an update, the woman said the police have spoken to her mother and informed her that if she approaches the house they will consider it harassment and will "act" while they investigate the allegations.

Redditor Reactions

More than 1,200 users commented on the post, many criticizing the woman's mother for not realizing what she did was the definition of kidnapping.

"Kidnapping is taking a child out of the custody of their legal guardian without permission or justification. That's literally the definition of what your mother did," one user commented. "By definition, she kidnapped your child. There are, like, a lot of laws against that. And it should affect her work as a nurse. There are rules about nurses not being kidnappers for a reason."

"NTA. Also, you should press charges and make sure a restraining order is put [in place] cause it's only gonna get worse from there," another commented. "This was a kidnapping of a small child, and should be taken with the utmost seriousness."

"It's truly irrelevant what all these people think. You escaped all the toxicity successfully by emigrating. Cut all ties with the kidnapper and everyone who supports her," another commented.

"You are NTA. Your mother did kidnap your son, and this likely won't be the first time she tries that. This is potentially a trial run to see if she could get your son out of the country," another user commented. "Do not let her visit you again. If your son has a passport, keep it under lock and key...perhaps even explore if there are orders of protection you could take out to legally flag that your mother isn't allowed near you or your children."

"I would have lost it. She left your home with your child. She neither asked permission or left a note," another commented. "Your poor son probably does not know her and was traumatized. She can't find a hotel? Her problem. Her actions are the reason you banished her from your home."

Newsweek reached out to u/Open_Worldliness_732 for comment.

Other Viral Posts

In other viral posts from Reddit's popular "Am I The A**hole" forum, a man was praised for defending his wife after she cursed out his mother and a woman was supported for not wanting her fiancé's mother to act like her son's grandparent.

Another woman was slammed for spending more money on her granddaughter than her grandson.