"It sounds like you're trying to avoid potentially awkward or difficult conversations with friends and family. And sometimes that path works out just fine! But as you're learning with your sister, avoidance doesn't work every time. Granted, your niece could simply grow out of her bullying behavior. But it could also become a pattern when your kids are together. Which is a bummer for them, makes the time you all spend with your sister's family a lot more fraught,"
"Our usual policy is that if a family friend's kids are mean to our kids, we switch to hanging out with those family friends for adults-only dinners/drinks rather than subjecting our kids to their kids. But we arranged this family trip before my sister's 5-year-old started being mean to my 3-year-old-albeit with some trepidation, since even before that, her kids were challenging to travel with."
For spring break, a parent and spouse with children aged 3 and 6 plan to vacation with the parent's sister, her husband, and their children aged 2 and 5. The sister's five-year-old has exhibited bullying behavior toward the three-year-old, including cursing, name-calling, and refusing to share. The parent values the sibling relationship but prefers to avoid exposing their children to mean peers, often opting for adults-only interactions when other kids are unkind. The trip was planned before the bullying began. Avoiding the issue can fail; the niece might outgrow the behavior or it could become a pattern, making visits fraught and risking growing distance if unaddressed.
Read at Slate Magazine
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]