My daughter is 2 and a half and I have two step-children, a girl aged 11 and a bot aged 13. Last night, I had to have a serious talk with my husband about the way the weekend had just gone. I'm starting to feel the older children, who have previously been quite nice to my little girl, are starting to bully her. Shutting the door in her face, telling her off every time she moves (for things we wouldn't tell her off about - getting more water for modelling clay or putting her cutlery down after she's stopped eating) and saying to her 'santa's not going to give you any presents this year' - I must have heard that about ten times yesterday. The crunch came when I overheard a conversation that went like this: 11 year old: So, what will we do on Christmas Eve if we stay up late and everyone else has gone to bed?. 13 year old: Kill them all. My little girl, partly understanding, laughing.
Has anyone else ever encountered anything like this? My husband agrees its happening and noticed it himself. He's going to talk to them, but I don't trust them at all at the moment. I'm planning on taking my daughter to my mum and dads the next weekend they're over. It's making me feel sick - my daughter is such a lively, happy little thing, and she barely spoke yesterday from about 2pm to her bed time. I'm worried it can only get worse as they get older.