Being a first-time parent can be a daunting experience.
If you have children, you’ll likely recall the early years when you were still figuring out how to navigate parenthood. It’s not uncommon to make mistakes or feel overwhelmed as you encounter situations that make you anxious for your child’s safety.
A new mum recently shared her unsettling experience on TikTok after an awkward incident during a family dinner. She was left feeling uneasy when someone refused to return her daughter after asking to hold her. The mum was initially happy to let them hold her daughter, Winnie, but things took a turn when she asked for her back and was met with a refusal.
In her video, she explained: “I thought, ‘I’ll ask for Winnie back, I kinda want my baby back now’. I didn’t even ask, actually. To be honest, I said. I said ‘Oh, I’ll take Winnie while you eat your dessert’. And they said ‘No’. So I said, ‘I’m going to take her now, while you eat your dessert’, and they were like ‘No’ and shook their head.”
The 27-year-old mum then reached out for her daughter, prompting their friend to “back away”, still refusing to hand the baby back to her mother. This unexpected reaction caused the new mum to feel a surge of panic, as she felt an urgent need to have her baby back in her arms.
She expressed her shock at how “uncomfortable” the situation made her feel, saying: “I was like ‘Oh, okay, I really want my baby back now’. I didn’t know what to do. What do you do in that situation? I didn’t know that was a situation that would happen. It made me quite uncomfortable, as I’m realising a lot of motherhood is.”
Ultimately, her husband intervened to retrieve Winnie, as he was able to directly demand the child. However, the mum believed she made her position “fairly clear” and didn’t believe her husband’s presence should have been necessary.
Online commentators sought to reassure the new parent by giving her friend the benefit of the doubt, suggesting they likely “thought they were being helpful” by holding onto Winnie. However, some advised that in the future, she should be forthright in requesting her child’s return rather than hinting at it.
One commenter weighed in, noting: “I’d like to give benefit of doubt that they just thought they were being helpful and declining you having her back so they could eat/for their sake.”
Another said: “Technically, you got told no for offering to take her back while that person had their dessert. The second ask should have been, ‘I want her back, please hand her over’.”