Father wants family visiting newborn baby to follow rules

Parenthood for the first time is always a joyous moment not only for the parents but for the entire family.

But what will happen if you are a family member and planning to visit the baby and suddenly finds out there are some set procedures to be followed for the visit.

Surprised! But don’t be because there is one such case that has gone viral and had received mix response from the social media.

An anonymous Reddit user has divided fellow parents after revealing on the social media platform he created rules for visitors of his newborn son.

The unknown man and his wife welcomed their first child, a boy, three days ago and ‘held off’ on visits for the first day, as the dad admitted he was a ‘very anxious’ new parent.

He explains that: “Neither of our families are super clear on the whole ‘boundaries’ deal when it comes to newborns”, which prompted them to create the list.

He added: “I’m a very anxious new parent, so when we decided that we’d have people come and meet our son, I sent an email out to everyone who said they wanted to come visit.”

His rules were:

You can’t visit if you feel ill
No children under 18 because ‘schools are breeding grounds for viruses’
Visitors to wear ‘light’ perfume or no perfume at all
Always agree a visiting time first
Visits only between the hours of 9am and 5pm
No gifts because ‘it’ll be a hassle to bring home’
Keep visits between 3-4 people at a time

While most of the new parents’ friends and family took the email seriously and followed the set-out rules, the man’s parents and in-laws did not.

Narrating the visits in his post, the man said: My parents show up at about noon, while my aunt is already there with her husband and their two (adult) children. I ask my parents to wait outside for a bit so they can finish up their visit without overwhelming my wife and I, but my aunt is polite and decides to cut her time short. Without asking, my mother takes the baby and undoes his swaddle. My parents are mostly pleasant.

An hour later, my parents are still there and my in-laws show up, their grandson in tow. My wife tells them that they can’t bring him in. Their grandson starts to cry and my MIL starts to scold us for forbidding children, so my father pipes up saying that we’re being too coddling.

Then, my mother starts up and tells us that we’ve been very rude and cold and says that as grandmother, it’s her right to visit the baby when she pleases and she shouldn’t have to “RSVP” to her grandson’s birth. She calls me impolite for sending out a “demanding” email like I did and insists that if I regulate my son as strictly as I did his visiting’s, he’ll grow up resenting my wife and I.

We told them to go, and my mother told me she raised me too well to have me be so rude to my own family. My MIL said that if my wife didn’t “crack down on me”, they’d never be visiting again. My wife has changed her tune about the whole thing and thinks I was being too combative. I really don’t think I was that wrong in exercising my boundaries, and I think that them not listening is proof it was needed.