Have you every watched a child that was so out of control you found yourself disliking him immensely?

Yes and I have always felt guilty about it to . To make matters worse, it is my sisters child. He has always been more than a handful, mean, manipulative, etc... and my sister and her husband do not see what he is like.

They let him run wild, have never disciplined him the way they should and do not believe that he does most of the stuff that he does. There has been little to no consequences for his actions. He was adopted at 18 months old from Russia and it was apparent right from the start that he would be a handful.

They were inexperienced parents as he is their only child. He is now in his mid-teens and he scares me. I feel that if he had been disciplined and given the proper direction from the start, he would probably not be in this position now.

I also think that he would have been "trouble" no matter what, but the proper guidance would have lessened the negative personality traits that he has. Like you, I love kids and kids like me. I feel especially guilty that I do not like my sisters boy.

I have not had this happen to me yet. I say yet because my daughter is in the play around other kids phase and not with them. I'm sure when she plays with them as she gets older, I'll meet a host of interesting personalities.

I can understand where you are coming from though. It's tough to really dislike kids once you realize how much fun they can be and that all kids have their own personalities. (I think before having kids it was easier for me to dislike their behavior more because I didn't understand them - actually little kids would make me nervous because I hadn't been around them much).

Maybe you can tell yourself that you don't like the behavior of this child and not the child himself. After all, something has to be going on at home for his behavior to be this way. Some of his behavior seems really strange to me - not the part about being mean, since I think kids just don't understand how their behavior affects other people.

The part about the stealing food and hiding though seems really strange. He might have been mean to the cat because he didn't know what a cat was or he has a cat at home that is used to his behavior and tolerates it (and the parents allow him to do this or don't see when he does this). If you have to be around this child more, you might bring his behavior up to his parents and see how they react.

If they laugh it off then they don't consider it a problem and you may have reconsider this child being in your house. If they realize that it's a problem, then maybe you can work together to find a solution. If the child's visit is a one time deal, I might not worry about it but just make sure or hope that he has no further reason to visit my house.

There is a mom-like-me website that I read and some mom's post about the bad behavior of other kids in their home. Most people suggest that they talk to the parents. I'm not sure how that goes over since I haven't had to deal with this situation just yet (and I'm not looking forward to it either).

If the child is older and should know better how to act around other kids, then the parents are obviously missing the signs that their kid is a bully. This is quite common among parents of bullies I think. I have read some article recently about this.

Bullying is actually down in schools apparently but parents don't want to acknowledge their kid as the bully. In fact, there was one article about how parents tell their kids to act in situations that actually encourage bullying. These parents actually exhibited bullying behavior themselves.It was really interesting and I should have bookmarked it.

Anyway, don't beat yourself up over it. It could be the child's behavior but most likely it is some combination of behavior issues that haven't been dealt with by the parents.

I am not too fond of children in general, that is why I prefer to work with teens. I do find many children I dislike because of their behavior. When my co-worker and I were eating lunch, a 7 year old student from grade school approached us and talked to us in English (which is not our native language).

He then boasted about his parents who were from Canada, bla bla bla. We did humor him. Then he asked a question about physic or something and when my coworker answered it wrong (or so the child thought) he got angry and yelled at her.

Keep in mind that all teachers wear uniform to school so that he must know we;re teachers, though not his teacher. I finally in commanding voice, asked him to stop that behavior. Then he stormed away.

What a brat! We fought an urge to spank him really.

Yes a friend of mine has a daughter like this. As a very young girl she was very pretentious and they thought it was cute and encouraged it. Now that she is about 12 it is no longer cute as she decides if she wants to bring her parents to the phone or interupts you when you speak.

They themselves no longer find it cute but they don't know how to stop it. She is someone who always tries to prove she is smarter then all the adults in the room and when she loses she goes away screaming. I find her to be very annoying.

It's so hard to put up with mean children, but one has to feel sorry for them. They don't choose to be that way; it's usually a reaction to an emotional situation in the home or family. I know a child who drives me straight up the wall sometimes, at least when her mother's home!

She's pretty good when I'm home alone with her. My 7yo granddaughter is whiny to the max, demanding, and manipulative. At least she manipulates those who will let her do so, but this grandma doesn't fall for her bad behavior.

She was WAY overindulged as a toddler and is melodramatic when she doesn't get her way; she can turn the tears on and off as she needs to, squeals like a two-year-old, and will persist even after she's been given a definite "NO". When her mom is home I try to stay out of the situation if it doesn't involve me (which is seldom because she knows I won't indulge her) but at some point I usually end up stepping in to save my own sanity. So although she can be a very sweet and funny little girl when she wants to be, I find myself not "liking" her very much, even though I love her.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.