A woman who gave her niece "sleeping pills" while staying over at her home has left the internet torn.
Posted to Reddit's r/AmITheA**hole forum, a woman under the username u/drugged_up_aunt shared her story for the "AITA" community to decide if she was in the wrong. The viral post has 6,000 upvotes and 1,000 comments.
The Redditor begins her story by explaining that her 8-year-old niece has been living with her for the last month due to her sister dealing with an emergency. Her niece was having trouble sleeping. The original poster (OP) noticed that her niece was having trouble sleeping.
The user wrote: "She was tired, I was tired. Just to experiment, I got some kids vitamin c tablets and told her they were sleeping pills. And it worked like magic! She fell asleep instantly and slept through the night! For the rest of her stay with me, every time she couldn't sleep, I gave her a "sleeping pill.'"
Are you having trouble getting to sleep at night? There are plenty of options on how to get a good night's sleep. According to the National Institute on Aging, it's important to get seven to nine hours of sleep for adults. An 8-year-old should get between nine and 12 hours.
Try habits such as having a regular sleeping schedule, avoiding napping, having a routine, keeping your room at a comfortable temperature and avoiding large meals before bed.
"Two days ago, she went back to her parents and last night couldn't sleep and wanted the 'sleeping pills'. I brought them over and my niece was able to fall asleep. My sister was livid, I tried explaining to her that they were just vitamin c pills but my sister says that my niece is probably 'addicted' now," she continued.
Her sister claims the OP is in the wrong because she didn't talk to her first before giving her any medication. The OP said that she understands why her sister is angry with her and reassured her sister that it wasn't medication.
The "AITA" community was left torn in the comment section.
"[Not the A**hole]. Come on, even if she was addicted to these pills (which she is absolutely not), what's the actual harm? So she won't get scurvy. Great. Tell your sister to take a placebo chill pill," wrote u/gkc88, who received the top comment of over 17,000 upvotes.
"[Not the A**hole]. Placebo effect ftw. I've given my kid her daily vitamin at night and told her it was her super magical gummy that will help her sleep and grow big and strong.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do," u/musical_spork explained.
"[You're the A**hole]. The placebo affect is real and measurable. You have started to creates an association with taking medication to solve a sleep problem. This is not a good thing long term even if the medicine was harmless. You are creating a psychological dependency. Medicine real or placebo should be discussed with the parents first," u/GWeb1920 argued.
"[No A**holes here]. You should always ask the parent before giving a child something, even vitamins, or lying to them, even a seeming white lie, but leaving her with you for a whole month, she should have been clear on what was and wasn't ok," u/gurgilewis.
Newsweek reached out to u/drugged_up_aunt for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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