Dear MIMSters: My Widowed Sister-In Law Is Treading On Dangerous Grounds| Part 2

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It started with her calling me every now and then to report her children. Sometimes, she would threaten to send them away and I would invite the children over to my place and counsel them. Sometimes, I would go over to her place and speak to the children and plead with their mother on their behalf.

I began to wonder what was really happening because as far as I know, those children do what your average teenager and young adults would do.

Over the weekend, the boy was at my place because as usual, my SIL had called during the week to report him. She threatened to throw him out so I begged on his behalf. I invited him to come over to my place and I asked my niece to come along, too. The first thing I noticed when they arrived were marks on the face of the girl. I immediately took them out for a walk so we could talk and that was when they opened up to me for the first time ever!

According to the two of them, they grew up knowing their mom with different men but none ever lasted beyond 6-months. She met her latest boyfriend at her workplace.

This man according to her children, is married with children but he would always come to sleep in my SIL’s one-room apartment with her children. He has been hitting my niece and nephew for flimsy reasons and every time he did, their mom joined him to beat them. All the little little comforts they have always enjoyed with their mom, this man has stopped them. This man has exceeded the normal 6-months their mom spend with men and already almost clocking a year with her. He would keep malice with my niece and nephew and their mom would join in. It took my ‘pressing’ those children before they opened up to me. They cried as they told me all this man has been doing to them since he came into their lives and how their mother sees nothing wrong with it. He has interfered in everything that has to do with them – what they wear, who they relate with, their church, etc. He is of a different belief and he is seriously enforcing his belief on them.

Their maternal grandmother is alive, their uncle and aunties from their mother’s side are alive but these children are bent on protecting their mother’s honour so they do not want to tell on her. They are begging me to speak some sense into their mom but I do not think it’s in my place to do so. The niece and nephew I reconciled with five years ago, who were vibrant and very bold are becoming timid and sad, and I do not know how I can wade in without getting them into trouble with their mother and her lover. What can I do?