Partner's son is cruel to my pets

[Yorkshiiiire88]

I've been with my partner for 2 years and he has two little boys aged 5 and 7. I have a 10 year old daughter. We don't live together.

Initially it was fun to go for the odd day out but as we all spend more time around each other, particularly at my house, the behaviour of my partner's eldest son is more and more unsettling. The younger one is a bit naughty but in more of a cheeky playful way and that's fine. The older child is malicious.

Any room he walks into he will pick up 'a weapon'. We went to a party and he picked up a glass bottle and waved it in another kid's face. A woman took it from him but he picked if straight back up. He did the same thing to my cat with a dinner knife. I also walked into the room this weekend and he had piled books, ornaments and other things onto my little kitten and was waving his hands in her face (I'd left them alone for less than a minute). I've seen him hiss at my cats, kick at them and generally tease them and be cruel. He tried to force feed my cat a shell and at a petting farm this weekend he tried to trick a donkey into eating a rock by hiding it in some food. I hate that sort of thing and Ive made it very clear to his dad its unacceptable. He tells him off but he has a 'boys will be boys' attitude to it. He's also got all of the cats food and dumped it in the litter tray. He's never sorry.

He's rude to me, ignores me when I ask him to stop doing things and is generally obnoxious. Every time he comes over he breaks something and it's always something belonging to my daughter. He bullies his little brother who is very sweet and he lies and manipulates situations.

I'm finding the situation hard. I love my partner and I've grown close to the younger child but as far as the 7 year old goes after the knife incident and him hurting the kitten I don't want him at my house, I don't even want to be around him and I don't want him around my daughter or pets.

I want to settle down. I'm starting to wonder if that will be possible when I can't imagine being able to live with my partner until the child is grown up. Thoughts? There are numerous other incidents but all pretty similar.

End it with your partner.

His reaction to his child's vile behaviour is awful.

Your poor pets.

If you decide to stay with him then rehome them. They deserve better.

I know a child who had this behaviour. He wasn't a psychopath. He was being sexually abused by a family member. These are absolutely the behaviours SS needs to be aware so they can target the right support for the child: he may be a psychopath or he a badly behaved child with no boundaries or a deeply traumatised child. It doesn't matter which of those three are accurate in this particular case. The fact is he needs help now before he seriously hurts himself, an animal or another child. If you don't want to phone SS, speak to the headteacher at the school so they know. Sticking your head in the clouds will help no one.