A new dad who wants to charge his wife for baby formula took to Reddit to ask if he was being unreasonable.
He explained that his wife had been breastfeeding their child for six months, but now wanted to switch to formula. ‘She makes plenty of milk and everything,’ he wrote. ‘She just says she “feels done”.
‘I think if she wants to stop for basically no reason then the money for formula should come out of her personal spending money because she is the one making the decision,’ he continued.
His wife disagreed, saying the money for baby milk should come out of the family grocery budget. But the man objected, saying that their budget ‘is already tight’ and complaining that he doesn’t ‘have a say’.
The NHS recommends feeding new babies exclusively on breast milk until they are six months old. Breastfeeding has been shown to have long-term benefits for babies that last into adulthood. It can reduce a child’s risk of infection, SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), childhood leukaemia, obesity and adult cardiovascular disease.
Studies also suggest that breastfeeding can lower the mum's risk of breast and ovarian cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and obesity. But it’s far from the easy option – common breastfeeding problems include everything from very painful mastitis, to thrush, and vaginal dryness. Which, after six months of service, you might count as ‘reason’ enough to consider yourself ‘done’.
The man’s fellow Reddit users were unsympathetic.
‘If anything formula should come exclusively from your budget for the next 6 months and then you can switch to 50/50, since she was the one saving your family the cost of formula by breastfeeding for half a year,’ one commentator proposed. ‘She also housed and fed the baby in the womb, so tack on 9 more months, plus rent.’
‘I heard the eviction was rough too,’ another user jokingly added.
‘Breastfeeding is only free if you consider her time as worthless,’ one person declared.
‘She should invoice him for the hours spent nursing/pumping and take that out of his budget,’ another woman suggested.
‘6 month olds have teeth!’ one Twitter commentator pointed out.
Another horrified user tweeted simply: ‘…imagine the nightmare of having a child with someone only to find that this is how they act.’
