I have a 5 1/2 year old niece who is mean to other kids. She takes toys away from them. Can you explain why? She is not disciplined with any consistency and almost always gets her way from her mother. Her father is not around that much. She stays with a caretaker during the day and I think that she rules the roost with the caretaker as well. What can be done to change the way this adorable little girl treats others? She is not even very nice to me, her aunt!

I think you answered the question in your post. She will need consistant discipline at home and at the caretakers. Children need to be taught how to act. If no one takes the time to teach them, they won't learn. It's not her fault, she's just a kid and doesn't know any better. She is allowed to act that way, so she thinks it's ok. Parents will have to step up to the plate here.

or the parents, and everybody else, get to live with the consequences.

you said exactly what I was going to say gentlemen.

Children need boundaries so they know how far they can go, without them they don't know what they will get told off for and what is OK. Children will always push these boundaries and it is up to all the adults to stick together and enforce the same boundaries.

Everything is wrong in her life, just as described in your post. Her parents are doing everything WRONG! She is an angry girl and she is acting out.