I'm so fed up of my nephew. I know I'm being unreasonable, but I really need to vent...
He's 8 and he's a nice kid, but he's very spoiled/babyish for his age and reeeaallly annoying. He's in and out of our house all day (lives across the street) and although I always say he's very welcome (and really wish I meant it) I really struggle not to find his presence deeply irritating.
He is allowed to go paint balling (and boasts about the experience) but it's not OK to ask him to take the rubbish out (something we routinely get our 6 year old & 4 year old to do). He is allowed to fly home from holiday by himself (when his grandmother is making the same journey by car) simply because he says 7 hours in a car is too boring for him. But he's not allowed to walk to school on his own (5 minutes' walk, no major roads, plenty of children younger than him doing the same journey unnaccompanied).
Recently he's decided that there's a cartoon character he's afraid of, so now he can't go anywhere (including to the toilet) on his own. So rather than looking into what cartoons he's been watching or trying to talk to him about it, SiL and MiL have been accompanying him to the toilet for the past 2 months.
At the same time, he is constantly trying to one-up his little cousins (my sons) shouting how he's bigger/better/braver and then hiding behind them when it comes to something like retrieving a ball that's gone over a fence. My 6 year old puts up with it and likes playing with him. My 4 year old has recently started noticing and calling him a baby. He doesn't like that much, but it hasn't changed anything.
When they're playing in our house or when I take them out, I make a point of treating them all the same. And I try to ignore a lot of what they get up to and how they speak to each other (because they're just little boys and a certain amount of one-uppy nonsense is inevitable) although I do intervene very firmly when I think someone's being mean/taking it too far.
I really like his mum (my SiL) and MiL is a kind and well-meaning woman (although in many ways thinks like a 6 year old herself and drives me up the wall slightly but I try to hide it. She pushed him around in a buggy til he was nearly 6 and still dresses him/ spoon feeds him/ carries his schoolbag etc etc... I do blame her I suppose...) so I bite my tongue and keep my complete lack of understanding to myself because I don't want to rock the boat.
DH feels the same way as I do (only more so, because she's his mother) and he's said things to SiL & MiL on numerous occassions, but they really don't want to hear anything about it, in their eyes the child is perfect. Which, on the one hand, is lovely that they see that. However... HE IS SO ANNOYING. I try not to talk to DH about it now because I don't want to wind him up/drive a wedge between him and his family.
And I do know it really isn't the child's fault. None of it. And I know it really isn't up to me to say anything because I'll just look like a judgey, interefering idiot. But, roll on school and not having him running round my house all day....
That's all. Thanks for reading.