Friend's Children

[HeathcliffMoorland]

My friend has two terribly behaved children. They scream and hit. They don't have ANY manners. They never (well, rarely) do as they're told. The worst part is that their mother thinks everything they do is lovely and she praises them for being bold.

The problem is, I worry that they'll be a bad influence on my three. DD1 only ever really talks back/is rude after they have been over for the afternoon. I see this friend an awful lot. I love her to pieces. I try to organise child-free events, but this has only so much longevity, as babysitters etc. must be organised.

Has anyone any experience of this? Please help. I'm at the end of my tether.

I've had experience of this, and sadly, I now see very little of my friend becaue of her brattish daughter.

My DD and this girl were at nursery together and from a young age I thought my friend's daughter was rather spoiled. As she's grown up she's become rude, answers her mother back all the time, screams & shouts when she doesn't get her own way and can be rather bullying towards my DD.

You could try talking to your friend about this although I think that can be very dangerous territory as parents don't always perceive their little darlings in any other way than perfect.

Sorry, I'm not much help. I still have pangs of guilt whenever I bump into my friend at school and she suggests we all meet up in the park or something similar.I'd love to but after 6 years of trying hard I still think her daughert's a nightmare!

Good luck

Thank you. I may have to begin being less available.

Talking will be unlikely to do any good, as she thinks their naughtiness is just peachy and hilarious as things stand.

Also I see her finding it so hard, and this upsets me. Yes, she laughs along, but you can see she's exhausted.

If anyone has any ideas on how I could approach it indirectly... Unlikely I know!

You could try talking about other kids with your friend, you know, something along the liens of, " I've noticed xx's kids are so badly behaved/naughty/a pain the arse"??

I tried this but my friend has a very thick skin!

Ooh, I'll give that one a go! And I may even use examples of kids I know to be slightly better behaved than hers.

Mine are no angels, but they're generally very good. I would just like to keep things that way as best as I can.

She won't take any 'critism' of her parenting or how her brats behave.

I notice that when DS has been around other toddlers that are playing up, he behaves much worse.

Unfortunately with her attitude, she is unlikely to change it and her children will only get worse. My dads DP has 2 children, a son from previous relationship and my half sister. They are 16 and 13 and oh. my. god. I can't stand being around them. They are so spoiled and bad mannered due to her bad parenting.

I would distance my child from children who are like this tbh. Its more important to me that my DS doesn't pick up awful behaviour from other children because the mother can't or won't discipline her kids.