She's 10. She lives here and only see's her mum for a few hours every fortnight, this has been the same since she was a toddler and I've been here since she was 4.
She will sulk and be moody for no obvious reason, will say no randomly to things she would normally like. Complains and looks for the negatives in everything and can never just say that she had fun, there's always a but.
She's very emotional and can cry within seconds over the tiniest thing and when she starts crying she doesn't stop easily . Find its difficult to calm herself down and gets more and more worked up because she's crying.
She takes everything as a personal criticism, makes herself believe we are angry at her or that she's done something wrong when she hasn't. Gets upset if her behaviour's corrected or she makes a mistake at school, same if she has any fall out with her friends.
Everything is embarrassing, we're regularly accused of trying to humiliate her without doing anything. Trying on clothes in a shop or at home is too embarrassing for example and we can’t buy things for her when she is there which means me or her dad have to make extra trips as she always wants to come whenever we are actually going shopping and feels left out if we go while she's at school.
She's clingy and wants to sit on my lap and be cuddled all the time. Will ask for help with things like drying her hair which I know she's more than capable of doing on her own. Wants praise and approval for everything she does on her own.
I'm just worried that she seems quite insecure. Her dad reckons this is because she is just slightly emotionally immature for her age mixed with hormones from starting puberty but that it will sort itself out without us doing anything.
Would you say this is normal for a nearly 11 year old?