my brother in law is quite eccentric - very very clever and a frustrated artist but few social skills. he married an indian girl 9 years ago and they came to live over here and have had 2 sons. i only mention that she is indian because she was very naive and innocent when she first came over and she still has some difficulty seeing that her husband's behaviour and the decisions he makes about their kids can sometimes seem a bit weird and so doesn't intervene much.
their ds1, our nephew, is 9 and is an extremely intelligent and articulate boy. he's always seemed to have an old head on his shoulders in many ways amd bil does converse with him as you would an adult. this isn't weird as such, although i think he comes across as a bit arrogant at school and impatient with other kids when they don't catch on as quickly as him.
bil thinks he shouldn't be shielded from the realties of life and lets him watch tv that is far too old for him at times. e.g. he let him watch gladiator when he was 6/7 which me and mil were both a bit shocked at but didn't feel we could say a lot. i've now found out that he has been allowed to watch the auchwitz (sp?) documentary on bbc2 for the last few weeks and this is worrying me. just because the boy seems ok with it now bil doesn't see anything wrong with it. but i think seeing atrocities like this when you're so emotionally under-developed might have a lasting effect on him - either cause anxieties later or de-sensitise him to killing/inhumanity. i'm all for history being explored with him, but surely this is a bit ott? am i overreacting?