Am I being unreasonable here?
My DD is 4 and my BIL's son is 7. I've been feeling increasingly upset about the difference in how they're treated by the family and I'm wondering if I'm being oversensitive.
The 7-year-old has sleepovers at MIL's, gets taken on day trips, and generally seems to get a lot more attention. Even when gifts are bought, they tend to be much nicer than what my daughter gets. When I've mentioned it to DH, he says I can't force people to do things and that if they did it because I asked, it wouldn't be genuine anyway.
What bothers me even more is that the boy is often unkind to my daughter and nobody seems to address it.
A few examples:
- DD brought a new tracing book and he scribbled all over it. Everyone laughed.
- She was doing a painting and he painted over it. Again, everyone laughed.
- We arrived at MIL's and DD was excited to see him, running after him calling his name. He completely ignored her. I eventually asked his mum to tell him to respond to her, and he screamed in DD's face.
- He has colouring books and pens kept at MIL's house. When I tried to give DD a page to colour, MIL said they were only for his special pens.
I seem to be the only person who ever corrects him. I don't shout at him, I just tell him calmly when something isn't OK. The only time I've been stern was when he tried to hit DD.
I did once say that I didn't know why he was so mean to my daughter and that they just didn't seem to get on. Since then, SIL has apparently been saying that I don't like the nephew and that I'm mean to him.
At this point I genuinely dread going there and I'm starting to feel quite resentful of the whole situation.
Am I being oversensitive, or would this upset you too?