7 year old turning into nightmare daughter

[gingerbabe]

Help! Over the last few weeks DD1 (7) has turned into a teenager and I am at the end of my tether.

She is lying, smirking back at me when I tell her off and, most annoyingly, constantly being heavy handed with her younger sister (4). To my dismay she has started playing with a couple of girls at school, whom I would rather she didn't play with, and I don't know if that has had any impact on her current behaviour, but I don't want to actively tell her not to play with them because she'll just ignore me anyway, so it wouldn't achieve anything. I am trying to encourage play dates with other friends, but I just don't know how to deal with her behaviour. She was always a bit show offy at home particularly when she has friends round, but now she is constantly loud and hyper, showing no interest in school, and is being rude and disrespectful to me and I just don't know what to do about it.

Please help!!!

[pgwithnumber3]

Sorry no good advice to give but just to let you know that I am going through this with my DD (nearly 6) atm and I feel your pain. Will watch this thread with interest.

[spudcounter]

my dd is 7 too and some of this sounds very familiar. Must admit,I often end up losing my rag with her cheekiness. I've tried the punishment thing...no staying up to watch a dvd on friday nights if she continues bad behaviour..but I think her answering back is more of a reflex behaviour which she doesn't think about and trying to get her to think about it before she opens her mouth is very hard.
My only glimmer of hope is that occasionally I see signs of a sweet generous caring mature girl and am hoping that this will evolve and takeover the difficult one she is at the moment. When the good persona pops up, I make sure I give lots of positive feedback.