I'm not sure how to handle this so I need a little advice from those who do.
My daughter is a very sensitive girl. She cries at the drop of a hat. This past month we have had different family members come to visit us. Well, my sister-in-law has a daughter that is the same age as mine (5 years old), they are about a month apart, and my daughter is crazy about her. I have a hard time believing it's a mutual feeling but sometimes I think I should stay out of it.
My sister-in-law is staying with my in-laws while others come to visit their house and we attend some of the visits. I'm sure you all know how it goes, we're the black sheep of the family (the dreaded Atheists). It wasn't so bad when my husband's aunt came to visit. Her daughter is about 16 and there wasn't any fighting over her attention.
However, today my husband's half-sister came to visit and now we have fighting, taunting, and excluding. The half-sister has an 8 year old daughter who is very well off. She seems to want to play with both my daughter and her other cousin but when that happens, the other cousin pushes my daughter away.
Example, they were on the swing set in the back yard. My daughter wanted to push the older cousin. The younger one started to yell at her telling her she was getting in the way. Of course, she took that as they just didn't want her to play with them.
After words, it continued with a sleep over. My daughter wasn't invited. There was fuss over a blanket. She didn't want to be in the same pool. And so on, and so on.
What should I do? What can I do? I don't know what to do to make my daughter feel better, or how to protect her, or even stop this from happening. I just really hate visiting them now.
My in-laws and everyone else seems to see whats going on but just says, "This is what happens when you get a bunch of kids together," and "kids can be so mean to each other." Almost as if it doesn't even matter.
Just right now, before my daughter went to bed (she's been aweful quiet all night) she asked if we could go back tomorrow. I, personally would like to not see them for a long time. This isn't something I wish to do again.