tw: possible emotional abuse? 

I'm really upset about something that happened a few hours ago now and I just need to get it out somehow and maybe be reassured that I'm not overreacting.


Me, my mum, sister and niece were sitting in the living room together today and my sister (my niece's mum) was filling out my nieces development questionnaire since she just recently had her birthday. My niece was getting annoyed at how many questions she was being asked and now many things my sister was telling her to do because she's literally 4 years old and she just wanted to colour in her picture. So, since she was getting a bit angry my mum and sister both started ganging up on her, this 4 YEAR OLD BABY. They started calling her crazy for getting upset which only made her get even more angry. Then they thought that this was funny and both got their phones out and started videoing her, and kept on calling her names and egging her on to get a reaction out of her and laugh at her while they video it. I was just sitting there shocked and looking at her getting more and more upset, colouring in her picture harder until she eventually just scribbled all over it.


So then my mum (her grandma) did this thing that made me feel physically sick. She called her crazy and immediately after said "I love you! Hug me or I'll go get another baby!" and started holding her in a hug while they kept on videoing and laughing at her. When they finished their 'funny' videos they let her go upstairs and both just sat there looking at the videos on their phones and laughing with each other?


I left the room and went upstairs to find her since neither of them were going to go comfort her. I hugged her and I said its not her fault and they were being mean to her. She hugged me back and immediately just wanted to play with her toys with me so I did. She wanted to play happy families and I swear to God I had to try so hard not to start crying in front of my niece because my heart was just hurting so much.


It reminded me of when I was younger and would get really angry and upset and no one in the room would ever comfort me but instead just laugh and try to keep me going, saying stuff like "Haha, it's so funny to wind you up." like damn, how can you treat a kid like that? I've been sitting here thinking about how I should have said something to them. I know she's not old enough to remember this, really, but I can guarantee it will affect her in some way. Or maybe I'm just projecting my own issues onto her, I don't know. Thanks for reading this if you did, I just don't know who else I would tell this stuff to.