So i'm not a parent, although I've had a lot of experience with kids. I'm 18, & when I was 10 my first niece was born. Since then, I've had three more nieces born from my two sisters and my three older nieces have always been absolutely fine with me, loved me, loved to play games with me, never scared of me or hated me, it's just my youngest niece (lets call her E) that seems to absolutely hate me! I don't know why and its so upsetting. She has separation anxiety with her mum, she's extremely clingy to her, to the point my sister had to go get help as she wouldn't leave her alone ever. If my sister ever gave anyone else attention, E would scream the house down. My sister (who is a hairdresser) was giving me a haircut in her kitchen and E was clinging to her leg begging to be picked up. If my sister was getting ready to go out, E would go up to her and smudge her makeup because she knew she'd have to stay longer to redo it. (Sorry for the long post by the way, i'm trying to make it as short as i can, just trying to give a bit of backstory here.)
Anyway, she used to hate pretty much everyone because of her attachment to her mum, but as she got older she started to like everyone, and me the more time we spent together, but also hates me at the same time. I have aspergers and people call me weird and say i act weird so I thought perhaps thats why she doesn't like me much? Whenever they come round mine she's absolutely fine. But if i'm ever babysitting, whether in the day or at night, she goes crazy. She can be very naughty sometimes but I never really tell her off because I've always thought, she's not my child so i have no right to discipline her. There was one day where I babysat during the day for about 8 hours, and she was fine all day, having fun playing in the garden. i was in the garden weeding while she was playing in the sandpit with her six year old sister (call her L) and suddenly she started crying, literally screaming. I had no idea what had happened, and I tried to ask her what was wrong and she would just run away so I asked her sister to try cheer her up. After about 5 minutes of this nonstop, I went inside and she hid behind the sofa and kept peeking around the side at me while crying, if i looked she cried harder so i tried to take no notice, the crying got so loud I tried to speak to her, she couldn't hear me over her voice so I spoke louder saying 'do you want me to call mummy to come home?' and I wasn't saying it in a threatening way, I was saying it to try make her feel better, but she thought I was yelling at her and ever since she's been funny with me and I hate it. She told my sister she hates me. First time I saw her after that incident, she hid from me, so I explained to her that I wasn't shouting at her or angry, that I loved her and I was sorry. She was fine after that and would play normally. But last night I went to babysit, and she was okay when she first saw me, ran up to me and hugged me, but when she realised my sister was leaving, she ran in her mums bedroom and screamed again. It was so embarrassing because my sisters boyfriend is new and doesn't know me well and must think i was horrible to them or something. I ignored it as usual, thinking it would end eventually. it didn't. I could hear she had gone downstairs and was literally banging on the front door crying. I got L to go down and tell her i'd call their mum to come home only if E came up and got ready for bed as this usually worked. It did, she came up and I acted silly and she started laughing. I read them books and she was braiding my hair, laughing, smiling, everything was great. But when I left their room and said night night, the crying started again. I told her mummy would be home soon and she stopped and went to sleep. I can't get over the fact she said she hates me, it makes me so upset because i never wanted her to think i'm mean, and L keeps bringing it up because she thinks its funny she said it. it's so embarrassing because my sisters boyfriend must think i'm some sort of horrible auntie even though L treats me like her older sister, its just E that acts funny with me sometimes. How can i make her like me more? I feel so sad thinking about it.