Hello Everyone,

I've posted a lot about my current situation being in a dysfunctional family, however, I've also talked little about my niece. To make a long story short, my twin brother and his girlfriend never told my family that they had a child until last minute when they were putting her up for adoption. Because my parents didn't believe sending to adoption they demanded that they have custody of my niece. For the past three years, I've treated her as she was my daughter, however, I made sure that she refer to me as her aunt. I was still in college at the time but I planned my class schedule around her time. Taking care of a newborn was both a nightmare and great learning experience. I'd applied what I learned from my psychology courses at the university on child development to how I was raising my niece. My twin brother and his girlfriend on other hand, could care less. I vividly remember crying to my brother asking him for help with my niece because she wouldn't stop crying and I wanted to sleep. He said 'No, I'm too tired" and went back to sleep. While me, my mom, my dad, and sometimes my older brother took care of her, my twin brother would go out with his girlfriend and friends and play video games, smoke, and drink.

His girlfriend is soft-spoken but tries to play with her daughter, though I wish she would make the effort to visit her more frequently. My brother doesn't like his daughter, at all. Like my parents and older brother, he often yells at her over little things. He gets angry when ever she touches his X-Box One, video game cases, and TV. This morning I heard him smacking her on the back she wanted to go into his room to see him. "*Insert Name*, you are a STUPID baby, a VERY STUPID baby!!" was what he to his two year old daughter.

What made me so angry on the inside was that my parents were so hypocritical, specifically my mom. My mom yelled at my brother for calling his daughter "stupid" and said that he could go to jail, but within the next few minutes shames my niece by saying "No wonder your dad called you stupid; you don't listen!" As I mentioned before, my mom is a narcissist, an aggressive one, and my father is enabler. They both physically, verbally, and emotionally abuse niece ever since she started to walk. Here are a few things they have said to my niece:

"They should have let been adopted because you're such a trouble maker"
*When my niece hurts herself* "Good for you; you didn't listen"
*When she has a tantrum* "Stop it or I'll hit you!"
"She's a trouble maker because she's white like her mother" (she's half black and half white)
"DEVIL!"
"You're a devil!"
*Something racist towards white people*
"Shut up!"
"Be quiet!"
"Leave alone!"

Finally, my brother once said a few weeks ago to my niece, "God, I wish couldn't talk anymore!"

We all live under the same roof (my parent's house) and I feels like I'm going crazy. All I can do talk to my niece to make sure that she know I understand how she feels. Should I just focus on talking to my niece to make sure she is emotionally stable? I've already dealt with a physical confrontation with my mom who attacked me in front of niece,which end with me calling the police and my father forcing me to hug and say sorry to mom so everything could "go back to NORMAL". I don't want to a physical fight with my twin brother, he's way bigger than my mom. He's never hit me, however, I don't want to take any chances.

Thank You,
DayDreamer2122