I was mum-shamed by my neighbour – he made me cry and told me to ‘get support’ after my poorly baby cried all night
IF you’ve ever struggled to get your baby to stop crying, you’ll know how exhausting it can be.
Rather than being offered a bit of sympathy, one mum was made to feel like the ‘world’s worst mum’ by her neighbour after her baby cried all night.
Having been mum-shamed, the heartbroken mum vented about the incident online.
Posting on Mumsnet, the exhausted woman explained what happened and asked others for advice – having struggled with her poorly nine-month old.
She told the forum that her daughter had been born with a nasty Strep B infection – causing her to spend a week in the ICU.
Though the infection had gone, her little one had been constantly ill since she started nursery three months ago and had struggled to recover.
The mum wrote: “She’s had every cold, cough and runny nose and hasn’t been sleeping great at night. This last week, my little one has been to the doctors twice and admitted to hospital with an extremely high fever which we now know is a viral infection.
“Seeing her so poorly is heartbreaking and we as parents are doing our very best.
To make matter even worse, the mum was being woken every hour by her little one with a soaring temperature.
Understandably, everyone had been left exhausted and emotional.
She’d become so desperate to have her little one settle that her baby had started sleeping beside her again, so the mum could look after her as soon as she stirred.
While most of us would have been sympathetic to the mum, her neighbour decided to critique her parenting despite having no kids of his own.
Continuing, the post read: “My neighbour knocked on my door this morning… He proceeds to complain about her crying and keeping him and his wife awake.”
The nasty neighbour then pointedly told the mum to ‘seek support’, leaving the mum feeling like the ‘world’s worst mum’ as her baby has been ‘crying a lot’.
Having down everything in her power to help her tot, the mum asked whether she was being ‘unfair’ (yes, you read that right).
Naturally, most of the Mumsnet users sided with the exhausted mum.
“Why ask if you are being unfair? Is there something that you could be doing to limit the crying, and not doing it? That would be unfair,” asked one shocked user.
Others also dubbed the neighbour a ‘bully’ after leaving the mum in tears on her doorstep.
Another added: “He is a stupid bully, he should be commiserating not playing the big I-am.
“I would have looked at him, raised an eyebrow and closed the door.”
Some tried to empathise with both parties and even offered solutions for the exhausted mum.
“They didn’t know that your baby is ill, for all they know you’re doing cry it out sleep training,” commented a third, saying: “I do also understand where they’re coming from. Is the cot away from the party wall?”
To which, the mum revealed the cot was on the other side of the house.
A fourth then suggested that the mum ‘reassure’ her neighbour that her daughter has just been unwell and that she is being well cared for.
We don’t know whether we’d be this diplomatic in this situation.
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