Probably the saddest, most pathetic thing I've ever experienced.

[Duty]

I usually have to read your posts a few times before grasping what you're saying TGN, and the above is no exception and I think I'm not quite there yet, but I will put in at this juncture that it is not my gut feeling AT ALL that they feel/felt that "their role is being undermined" but rather that they've got vulnerable egos (as do most) and can't stand the fact that, when I'm on one of my rare "special treat" visits, I am my nephew's favourite person in the world...and also they can have "alone time" at his house while I babysit so they feel all "left out" etc...well, that last thing does read a bit like maybe they feel undermined...but it was their choice to leave nephew with me for their "alone time" so they, er, undermined themselves? Need more thinking do I 

Another thought I've had on this is that, if I really do have UNCONDITIONAL love for nephew, perhaps I should forgive and forget the pair's scandalous buffoonery in the name of doing what's right by nephew...bloody hell this is a complicated one lolz