Do I leave them alone?

I posted a while ago, after taking in my Grandma's cat (I have two 8 month old kittens). Life has sort of settled down, and for the last four days whilst we've been at home we have had all the doors open (this is the second time we've tried to introduce them all). We even managed to have the older cat on the bed with one of the kittens and no hissing! Hoorah we thought, we've sussed it! .....

However! ..... Most of the time the older cat stays upstairs out of sight sleeping and seems happy enough. The kittens are OK too. As others have said when Molly does venture downstairs we tend to have lots of stareing if she sees a kitten and if they get too close a quick swipe with her paw a few hisses from both and even a chase around the house. Followed by us shouting and then lots of calm time when there is a truce of one cat upstairs and two downstairs!!! But this is happening less often now, sometimes with no hissing just a sort of stand off followed by cats going in opposite directions!

Yesterday with the grate across the stairs to try and keep them separate I went to work, as they did all seem quite Ok and good at avoiding each other, but when we got home all 3 were outside!!! She has squeezed through the rail !

We got them all in, and they all seemed OK, not scared or stressed and again she stayed upstairs and the little ones downstairs.

My question is, are they OK? Should I just leave them to get on with it? Or keep a closer eye on them? I've put her in a room today whilst I'm out as I'm worried she is chasing the kittens out of their home!

The fighting, when I see it, doesn't appear to be play fighting but equally there is no actual ruff and tumble and no scratches or anything, it's more I think when the older new cat gets nervous or scared she lashes out...

I really want them all to at least tolerate each other. This is only week six so I guess early days and Molly has spent 3 of those weeks separate from the kittens.

All sounds pretty normal to me. In my home, my 5 now grownup kittens are accepted by four (only one bathes them though) and tolerated by 2 (hissed, pawed if they get too close) of the resident older cats. Of course the kittens have learned their place without my interferance. I think you should do too.

Sounds like things are working their way out. As long as the kittens are big enough to run, and no one is trying to kill each other (it's just "get away from me" stuff), then you can probably start leaving them together. If anything changes though, you should probably start over (there are several threads around here about this, if you haven't done a search already . )

I agree, it sounds like they are finding their place with each other I also think it is best to keep her away from them when you are out