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18th February 2024
09:51am GMT
Breastfeeding is a big issue in the world of parenting, but how would you feel if your partner was breastfeeding your child when they were 7 years old?
This is exactly the conundrum that a Redditor faced, and he shared his story on the site's r/Parenting thread.
"My ex and I have separated when our daughter was months old," he began.
"I started bringing up this issue when she was still breastfeeding at age 2. Initially taking it likely and joking about how she should at least stop once she reaches high school."
He went on: "Also dropped some game of throne references here and there. I am beyond jokes now."
The OP explained that one of the most frustrating parts of his situation is that his ex is "actually an intelligent reasonable person," and a mother who is "very involved, caring, nurturing, self sacrificing."
"I think she's just damaged emotionally on some level, which is the root cause of this bizarre attachment problem," he added.
Despite bringing up the topic with his ex multiple times, the OP explained that this has come to no avail.
"She keeps saying that she's working on it but that mostly she'll stop when daughter 'is ready' to stop," he wrote. "Words n words. No action."
"This wrong on so many levels, Don't want to get into it, We could write a book on the implications.
"Part of the issue is she won't sleep over at my place because she is used to always sleeping with mommy and more than occasionally breastfeeding still."
He concluded the post by calling for someone to help him, and asked: "Could I take this to court and get a judge to force her to stop?"
Fellow Redditors have taken to the post to share their comments on the OP's scenario.
Most of the advice was to focus on the issue of overnight stays.
"I would not touch on the breastfeeding part and concentrate on the overnights. She’s 7 and should be able to have weekends at her dads. If mom says no just let her know you’ll look into a custody order to ensure you have access," one person wrote.
A second said: "Instead of approaching the court issue about trying to stop the breastfeeding, what about having a custody arrangement where your daughter stays overnight."
A third put: "I would be concerned too. I don’t think there is anything you could do about it though. Eventually she will have to let your daughter sleep over."
