I don't have any children and did not suffer physical or neglective abuse from my family so I'm looking for some opinion's here. My boyfriend and I are just a little concerned about his daughter's actions.....here recently.

My boyfriend has two children, a girl 8 years old (kelsey) and a boy 10 years old (justin). They have an older sister 14 by a different father.

Last Thursday it was "take your child to work day". At the time her mother was supposed to come pick her up she clung to her dad and started crying and did not want to go with her mother and brother. She told her dad that she wanted to come live with him. Her dad asked her, "But, don't you think your mom would miss you?" And she said, No. In the meantime, the mother and brother are calling her a whining little baby and picking on her about crying. Of course immediately her dad jumped in and told them to stop and not to treat her that way. But what we wander is - if they do that in front of someone else, my god, what goes on at home? (Mind you this child is not a whiny kid - she is very strong and independent and highly intelligent.) We just found it kind of out of character for her personality.

Later that evening she was at home and called her dad and said she needed help with her science project and her mom was in the bed. (this was at 7:00 pm). After she talked to her dad, I suppose her mother got up and helped her. Fine. Science project done.

Then, this was his weekend to have them. Saturday morning I was at his store doing the bookkeeping and she came in the office and complained to me about her shoulder hurting. When I went to touch it she jumped back so apparently it was a true pain. There was a small bruise next to her collar bone. Later that evening her dad asked me to check it out. Now here's what freaked us out. When He asked me to look at it, I told him I had and had noticed a small round bruise. When we asked her how it happened, she immediately hung her head and started shrugging her shoulders and started tearing up and couldn't give us a clear answer as to how it happened. She ensued to get very upset and put her head down on the counter. It was just strange. Maybe nothing but, strange.

Her dad continued to ask her about the shoulder next day. He asked her when it started hurting and she said Saturday morning. So we think she may have bruised it on the trampoline Friday night and she honestly could not remember how she did it. That's what we hope anyway. Her reaction was just strange to us. Not like her. She a very vibrant, happy go lucky, resilient child.

So...............they go back to their mother's house last night.

She calls her dad this morning and says her back hurts. He asked her if she told her mom and she said yes. She said her mom told her "Oh, you'll be alright just go on to school.". So her dad asked her if she could find some children's tylenol. She said she looked and couldn't find any. So, he's calling the school to see if she can go to the nurse's office and get some so she does not have a crappy day at school. I haven't got all of the details of their conversation on this one yet but, I am interested to hear WHY her back hurts all of a sudden. In my gut, I just don't think she's making it up BUT-

There is a twist - Kelsey is the youngest child of her mother and father. She is my boyfriends last. Her mother is just recently pregnant with a fourth child by another different father that her mother only married about 6 months ago. She only knew the guy a year before she married him. The only thing I can think of is, possibly she is scared because she will no longer be the "baby".

I'm not sure, I have no children so I'm kinda putting this out there to get some insight. My mom was an abused child and tends to think the not wanting to go with her mother and brother was odd. In the 2 years this arrangement has been going she has NEVER done that. She's always just been go with the flow. There are times when she did not want to go home but not to that extent. Not that extreme. Her dad said she would not let go and that her brother and mother were picking at her for being a whiny baby. I think that's kind of cruel. And also my mom feels she's hiding something with her head and upset at us asking how she hurt her shoulder.

Just thoughts. Just precaution. Please let me know your thoughts. We will take ANY advice or insight.