Some general advice please?

FloraFox · 2012-08-20 22:14:46

I'm not a step parent but a male family member and his two DCs have been living with us (me, my DH, my two DCs) for the past 8 months. Their mum left and now lives very far away. For the first year after they separated, the kids lived with their mum and I think it was quite traumatic for them (her life was spiralling out of control, drinking, partying, home being foreclosed by bank, selling her DS's bed and a number of other things). They will move out at some point into a place near us and I will continue to help with school run etc around the dad's work hours. At first the kids seemed relieved to be here but I've had quite a difficult summer with his DS who is 7 and the youngest of the four. In general his DCs have been incredibly strong and I have tried to make a normal, stable home for them. Recently I've been finding his DS to be resentful and starting to act out (picking fights with the other kids, telling lies). I try to cut him some slack because of what he's going through but I flip between that and trying to be normal and apply normal discipline. The other DCs get annoyed if he gets away with too much. Now I feel he hates me. I'm not sure what to do. On the one hand it will be easier when they are back in school and the day has more routine / less direct oversight by me. Should I just carry on or does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this?

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This is an old thread and OP now has some privacy concerns so we've agreed to take it down.