'AITA for laughing at a pregnant women who was having an allergic reaction?'

"AITA for laughing at a pregnant women who was having an allergic reaction?"

I know the title sounds bad, and to be honest I don’t think that it really accurately fits the situation, but that is what everyone is saying I did. This happened at a family get together that included some neighbors and family friends. I was there with my husband and 7 month old son.

We really don’t attend things like this, but we made an exception because we really wanted to reconnect with a few family members who drove in from out of state. I was sitting by the pool, giving my son some of his teether snacks and his favorite are these banana teether crackers (important later).A women that I didn’t recognize came up to me and we started talking.

She told me she was 6 months pregnant and we were just talking about pregnancy, hormones, babies, and I felt like it was an overall normal conversation. I found out she was the girlfriend of a distant cousin which is why she was invited.

Out of the blue, she started to go off on a tangent about processed foods and was saying that the teeters are essentially “poison” for my son. She started to get loud when I disagreed, and reached over as if she was going to take the snacks out of my sons hand.

I stood up, and let her know I was uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken and excused myself and my son to go find someone I knew or my husband.

I had just found my husband who was inside talking to his siblings and started telling him about the crazy conversation outside when the women came up from behind me and had snatched my sons teether snack out of his hand. We all stood there in shock for a second, then she goes “You’ll thank me for this! It’s really what’s best for your baby” then shoved the snack INTO HER MOUTH. Baby slobber and everything.

She chewed for a few seconds then sort of froze, and asked if it was banana. When I said yes, she started panicking and shouting that she was severely allergic. I couldn’t really help it but I started cracking up. Everyone was rushing around trying to help her, but I was focused on getting my son calmed down from having his snacks stolen by an adult.

To me it was just instant Karma, so me and my husband used the chaos to sneak out without saying anything to anyone. She ended up having to go to the ER, but was ultimate ok. However, my reaction was not missed by others and we’ve had a few people reach out to call me a “horrible person for laughing at a pregnant women who was having a medical emergency."

They are distant relatives so it doesn’t really impact us, but AITA? I don’t really feel guilty for laughing at a women who literally stole food out of the hands of a baby.

What do you think? AITA? This is what commenters had to say:

hserontheedge said:

Ok so after having managed two kids with severe food allergies I'm left wondering what she was thinking.

Besides taking food from a child Besides harassing op for feeding your child a biscuit Besides even following your and you soon to continue to cause a scene This idiotic woman, who knows she is severely allergic, grabbed food and shoved it in her mouth without checking. We read ingredients on EVERYTHING.

You weren't laughing at a pregnant woman in medical distress, you were laughing at a person who is so convinced that their POV is the only POV that she created a scene and caused herself problems. If you stood there pointing and laughing as she was gasping for air, then it would be different - you laughed - most likely because of the absurdity of the situation, then you left. NTA

30ninjazinmybag said:

So no one is calling HER out for stealing from a baby. I'd have laughed too she deserved it for stealing someone else's food because she thought she knew better.

Americanhealth74 said:

All I can say is instant karma just happened in front of you.

And squall6l said:

And this is why context is so important. If you had just laughed at someone that accidently exposed themselves to something they were very allergic to, then yes you would be the A-hole. But in this case the humor in it is the pure and instant karma this entitled brat experienced.

I'm guessing the people calling you an A-hole only got her insane version of the story. Either that or they are just as much A-holes as the crazy pregnant lady is.

She later shared this edit to answer some questions:

A few people have mentioned that it sounds like the women was focused on conspiracies or asked if she said anything else strange. My husband and I had a long conversation on the way home and he had asked if she said anything else out of the norm. There were a few off the wall comments she made that kinda just got glossed over.

For example, my son was watching a bird and she said that birds aren’t real (According to my husband there’s a theory that the birds are just spy’s for the government?) and she also mentioned a few other things that seemed on topic at the time but looking back seem strange.

I’m sure they seem like bright red flags to others, but I’m not the best with social cues and I frequently make off the wall jokes that some people won’t get. I figured she was the same way. Why would she eat it if she thought it was poison?

Beats me, there was a trash can within feet of her. My husband thinks she was having a pregnancy craving haha. I am also fairly certain she saw the banana on the packaging, she didn’t start on her tangent until she saw me open a new package of the treats. It’s fairly visible but I can’t say if the photo was facing her or not.

I am getting more info from my SIL and a lot of things aren’t adding up for me- for example the women didn’t have an Epipen but why wouldn’t she if she had a severe allergy to something so common?? Apparently no one saw her having a reaction before the boyfriend drove her to the ER, but I know not all allergic reactions show the same way.

Finally, I really really wish this was fake. We have been dealing with voicemails and texts from extended family all week on top of our baby who is going through a sleep regression. We are functioning on maybe 3 hours each.

I am not going to go on a tangent, but there’s a reason my husband and I try to avoid these family get togethers- DRAMA. There is always some major something that happens at the family gatherings. We only went because we wanted our son to meet his aunts/ uncles who he’s only seen on FaceTime since they live out of state.

My son and I were only outside because he was getting overwhelmed by all the people in the house, but my husband really wanted to talk to his siblings that he hadn’t seen in person for years so I told him to stay inside. He has some odd balls in his family we try to avoid in general.