A woman has expressed her offense in a Mumsnet post after hearing her sister-in-law say that her baby looks like a cabbage patch kid, but her fellow users had opposing views.
Despite her insistence, others online felt she was being over sensitive and that the comments probably weren't meant to be unkind.
The mom explained that she and her sister-in-law have babies of a similar age, with her sister-in-law falling pregnant shortly after meeting the poster's brother-in-law. Due to the pandemic, the pair have only met "a handful of times."
"Anyway," she wrote. "We sat in [my] mother-in-law's living room and she was talking to my son and said he looks like a cabbage patch kid. My son is bigger and not fat, but a good size, whereas with being premature, her son is a little smaller."
"I was offended but laughed it off," she added. "The more I think about it, the more upset I am. Especially after talking to [my] mother-in-law who basically took her side and said, 'well everyone was rushing out to buy them when they came out.'"
"I know she was probably keeping the peace but just feels like although I'm upset I can't say anything and would be the trouble causer for saying anything."
The mom asked users of the popular forum if she should "get over it," or if they agreed that "it was a mean comment."
Issues between sisters-in-law aren't rare by any stretch of the imagination. An online survey conducted by Chilean newspaper La Tercera asked 600 respondents to share information about their in-law relationships and found that 56 percent picked their sister-in-law as the main "villain" of them all.
Despite this, many Mumsnet users rushed to the defense of the sister-in-law, insisting that the comment was likely not intended in a negative light.
"Perhaps she meant it in a cute kind of way, like cabbage patch dolls are cute in a way.
"I wouldn't waste headspace on it," wrote one user.
Many similar anecdotes
While others shared similar anecdotes of harmless nicknames given to their children, with one user recalling: "Most babies do look like cabbage patch dolls though to be fair, it's a pretty inoffensive comment. Our antenatal group used to affectionately call our babies potatoes when they were at the sitting but not crawling stage, because they sat there like a sack of spuds.
"I doubt very much she said it to be unkind. It's much more likely it was an innocent comment and you're overthinking it," they added.
"You are being incredibly over sensitive," wrote another user.
Although harder to find, some did see the situation from the side of the mom, with one user writing: "It's not unreasonable to feel offended but I wouldn't mention it this time. Next time you see her, if there's any comment like that I would say 'sorry could you repeat what you just said, I'm not sure I heard.' See what happens. Meet the comment with ice."
The mom concluded after the post's popularity that she does not plan on saying anything to the sister-in-law, but that she doesn't "think cabbage patch kids are cute at all."
"We do call him pudding ourselves so I can see where different terms of endearment come from but would never call anyone else's baby pudding as might offend them," she added.
