Why Woman Walked Out of Room After Nephew Born Without Saying a Word Backed

A woman has detailed how she walked out of the hospital minutes after meeting her sister’s newborn son and “didn’t even say congrats or anything.”
In a Reddit post shared under the handle u/Key-Form74, the 32-year-old explained the circumstances that led her to take such extreme action. It quickly became apparent to many online that her response was entirely justified.
Writing on Reddit, she explained that she has been dealing with fertility issues for the past seven years. “My husband and I are prepared for the fact we might never get to have a child together but it’s not easy,” she said. “We’re both currently in individual therapy to help us process all of this and find a way to be at peace regardless of what the future holds for us.”
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That’s not the main reason for her response to meeting her new nephew though. The fallout is the result of a dispute over baby names. “My husband and I have baby names picked out…we have a little note on our baby name book with our boy and girl name pick,” the woman explained. “It’s in our bedroom. We don’t look at it much anymore, but it keeps us hoping.”
So you can imagine her shock when her sister announced in the hospital that her new son was going to be named Elio, the name she had picked out in the event they ever had their own baby boy.
Baby name theft is a major cause of conflict among parents. In a survey of just over 12,000 U.S. adults, Today found that 57 percent of those polled felt it was “not cool.”
In this case, the sister acknowledged that the name had been her sibling’s top choice, but argued since they “wouldn’t be having any kids after all this time, she decided they should use it and not let the name go to waste being kept secret by me.”
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“It was then I remember seeing my sister in my room while she was pregnant a few months before…she’d been snooping.”
The sister’s actions were criticized by their parents who questioned “how she could do that” without telling her sibling first. Her sister was unrepentant though, claiming that it “seemed a shame to waste a perfectly good name.”
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The woman said she “couldn’t handle it” so immediately left to go home. “I didn’t even say congrats or anything,” she said. A day later her sister called, accusing her of being “selfish” and “gatekeeping” names. Though her parents are now urging her to let it go, many online could understand her response.
Kara Kays a licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in postpartum/pregnancy, relationships and self-esteem with Thriveworks, a nationwide mental-health provider offering therapy services in-person and online, told Newsweek: “It sounds like the sister struggling with infertility who wanted the name does not feel valued or respected by her sister.”
“While we can’t ‘own’ a name, the way the sister who just gave birth went about it was very insensitive,” she said. “The comment of ‘we shouldn’t let the name go to waste’ shows that she has little respect for her sister’s struggles.”
She urged the two sisters to work on establishing “strong communication” to address the issues that have been raised in this situation.
“If the two sisters can work through this, it will start with the ability to share each of their own experiences,” Kays said. “It can be a challenge to remember that each person has their own story and usually, each person is the good guy in their own experience.”
The response on Reddit was more vociferous though, with many coming out in criticism of the sister. One wrote: “The snooping, calling you out for not talking about the names ever and choosing the name that she specifically got the idea of from snooping without so much as a conversation is completely unacceptable.”
Another commented: “It’s not just intended to hurt in that moment, but for the rest of their lives. Every time she sees her nephew it’s a constant reminder of something her sister achieved while she failed.”
“She went out of her way to make sure you knew exactly what she did. She could have just used the name for her baby, and you would never have known that she snooped,” she added. “She had to twist the knife to make it 100 percent clear that she was intentionally causing you pain.”
Newsweek reached out to u/Key-Form74 for comment but could not verify the details of the case.