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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

to feel that 12 year old DD is ruining our lives

137 replies

anastasiaviolet · 31/01/2011 21:56

..Please don't flame me for saying this, we love her dearly, but she is truly horrible at the moment.

We try so hard to be patient with her but from the moment she wakes up she is rude and unpleasant. Literally from the moment you call her to wake her up - you get "oKAAAY!" then she comes in the room with the most aggressive, sullen look on her face and if her 10 year old sister even dares to look at her she goes "WHAAATT?", if we speak to her she is rude, the car journey into school is a nightmare as she picks a fight over something whether it's the radio or she's been told she can't have something. It goes on like that all day, I pick her up from school and she will ask if we're going straight home, if I say yes she sighs and complains there's nothing to eat, then why don't we ever do anything good (we do), what's for dinner, there's nothing nice to eat (there is), she needs a new bag/shoes/PE top. Just on and on and on. DS is at nursery and we often have to leave her in the car as if she comes in to nursery to pick him up she is loudly rude to 10 year old DD and has pushed her down the nursery stairs in view of the other staff.

She asks for something new every week, is unbelievably greedy, and never satisfied. She begged us for a new phone for Xmas and is already bored of it. She is already writing a birthday list (birthday is in August). Things we've bought her for other Xmases and birthdays lie broken or abandoned. We are definitely guilty of spoiling her but that is now at an end as we see what it's done to her.

I am terrified to be honest and in tears writing this. What happened to the sweet, lovey toddler I had? She is not DH's biological daughter - her biological father was a violent abusive man who we have no contact with. I am so scared she is just like him, it seems like in a way he is living in our house through her as although she has only seen him a couple of times as a baby she acts just like him at times. I am afraid she is just a horrible person. She is poisoning the atmosphere in our house, all DS and DD hear is her shouting and rudeness.

She is even in trouble at school now, she was so good at primary school but is now coming home with punishment exercises, I feel like she is totally beyond our control.

I try to be calm and patient with her, I try to spend time with her, I don't know what to do, she is unspeakable to live with at the moment and she's only 12!!!

AIBU to feel truly desperate?

OP posts:
Chewingle · 15/03/2021 10:19

Is she your eldest OP?

FullofCurryandparatha · 15/03/2021 10:24

jesus people, RTFT!

comfyoldcardi · 15/03/2021 10:25

This thread was started in 2011. I hope the situation has improved by now!
Who resurrects these threads?

Hobnobswantshernameback · 15/03/2021 10:26

Fuck sake this child is now 22
Why the fuck reawaken these threads

Phoenixdays · 15/03/2021 10:28

I was a pretty awful teenager. I got this rage and remember not understanding where it came from. I had older siblings and my mum was a pro with my behaviour. She never batted an eyelid and invariably I would make noise, swear at her (so ashamed now of that)
Tell her I hated her and all sorts. Couple hours later would slink downstairs and apologise. As she never argued back I always felt deflated and it made me think about what I’d done. I don’t think I’ll be as tolerant with my dc though as I’m too fiery.
Does she do any exercise to get the rages out? She might suffer pmt or pms also. The pill might help, also things like evening primrose oil, magnesium etc.
I did come out the other side about 15 and have a lovely relationship with mum and we actually laugh ( I cringe) about those times

PapaSierra · 15/03/2021 10:28

Just an observation, but christ there are threads like these in the stepparenting boards and they get their arses handed to them. Glad to see you are getting more support OP.

PapaSierra · 15/03/2021 10:29

Oh bloody hell sorry just seen its a zombie!
(Still true though!)

Marvelwife123 · 15/03/2021 10:29

YANBU but I would say maybe have a think to why it’s so much of a trigger for you. Is your emotion in each situation a true emotion to just that situation or are you bring in other emotions from other areas of your life I.e the fear she is like her father.

If she’s funny about what you cook for dinner, she can make her own, if she’s rude, change the wifi password and make sure her data is limited on her phone.

Learn to pick your battles, bit like toddlers you can’t always win but need to remain in control most of the time.

I agree with Pp it’s hormones and if you said you have always spoilt her some might be learnt behaviour. Next time she wants something make her work for it, she has to be nice / not rude / do the washing up / chores etc.

Phoenixdays · 15/03/2021 10:29

Oh no !! Haha , @anastasiaviolet did she get better?? Lol

Hobnobswantshernameback · 15/03/2021 10:29

THIS THREAD IS TEN YEARS OLD
THE DAUGHTER IS NOW IN HER TWENTIES
DO PEOPLE NOT RTFT

DowntonCrabby · 15/03/2021 10:33

Would love the OP to come back and tell us how it’s all worked out. Grin

Rufus27 · 15/03/2021 10:36

I realise this is a zombie thread, but for anyone coming across it through advanced search, please look into attachment issues if your child presents similarly to OP’s. I have two adopted children with attachment difficulties who behave very much like OP’s DD as a result of their early life trauma. Children like this need support and empathy.

FullofCurryandparatha · 15/03/2021 10:37

Just an observation, but christ there are threads like these in the stepparenting boards and they get their arses handed to them

Hopefully you can tell the difference between a parent worried about their childs behaviour and someone else complaining about the same child.

Mummyoflittledragon · 15/03/2021 10:47

@Eliza72

I've been searching for advice on teen girls behaviour and I came across this post!

Thought it would be interesting if any of you are still members to give a long term view over a decade later on how you eventually got through it. Might give me hope 😢
@anastasiaviolet
@gypsyMoth

You need to start your own thread with more specifics as you’re getting advice about a child, who had a heavy burden placed on her by her mother, frightened her 12 yo was turning into her father.

Some of this advice is ok. Some is awful. Plenty of people with older teens and adults can give you their perspective.

JimmyJimmyJim · 15/03/2021 10:52

ZOMBIE THREAD from 2011

There is a site stuff thread asking for a banner at the top so it is obvious when a thread is old. Maybe more people need to support getting the banner on these things. It is my thread just name changed since then.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/4147158-Zombie-Thread-alert-banner

Chewingle · 15/03/2021 10:55

@JimmyJimmyJim

Would love an update!

Cowbells · 15/03/2021 11:00

Mimick her. If she goes, 'Whaaaatt??' Say in the same tone of voice 'Said, we're going hooooome, Okaaaay???'
If she is rude, say very calmly, 'I don't do nice things for people who are rude to me. I'm not a doormat.' And then wander off.

I did this when DS1 tried this sort of rubbish. It didn't last.

But I also love bombed him when I could see he was tired or hormonal - you could give her hot water bottles and chocolate for period pains, and take pretend genuine interest in what kind of trainers or school bag she wants.

Cowbells · 15/03/2021 11:01

Hah. I should have RTFT. Grin

JimmyJimmyJim · 15/03/2021 11:01

@Chewingle updates are great and I did say that on the zombie banner thread, but people just don't see dates. I don't and I have been on MN 15 years.

I wasn't asking for threads to be locked, just a note at the top like the MN HQ one in a different colour saying this is a zombie thread.

Chewingle · 15/03/2021 11:03

No I meant I’d love an update from you!

poppycat10 · 15/03/2021 11:09

Removing phones will have NO impact whatsoever. Why do MNers always suggest this nonsense? If she is hormonal and fed up, it needs a different approach entirely.

I can't help, as my teenage son has been ok - he has his moments but they are very rare. He is also a grump in the morning but I ignore that.

I wonder if doing some sort of sport would help her? It sounds like she needs an interest to give her an outlet and also to get her out of the house.

Try not to visit the sins of the father on her though. I have always worried that my son would be like my abusive father (he was financially abusive and controlling) and you just have to hope the genes have been diluted enough for her not to be like her father.

poppycat10 · 15/03/2021 11:09

Oh for goodness sake. WHY do people post on dead threads?

And more to the point, why do I not check the dates.

Nenevalleykayaker · 15/03/2021 11:10

Daughters stop being adorable and cuddly when they’re about 10.
My 11 year old son is still like a toddler in comparison.

Patience. My 13 year old is like this too. Even using that same phrase , “Okaaaaaay” Grin

She speaks to her slightly younger brother like dirt, and sometimes us too, it’s the tone of her voice more than the content. We pull her up on it constantly but it’s ignored.

She’s silent and moody too. And lives in her room. Flinches away from cuddles.

However, some days you see the old innocent and sweet 10 year old, when she cuddles everyone, and is wildly happy.

It will pass ! It’s just hormones, realising the world is a scary place to exist in, losing her innocence in terms of what really goes on in the world - news, her friends’ drama issues, and so on. Mine actually worries about jobs and paying taxes and how to rent a flat, and she isn’t even 14 yet !

If you’re willing, browse through her phone and the kinds of conversations she texts with friends to get an idea of what she’s interested in, and what her worries might be.

We regularly check our daughter’s with her permission and will do until she’s 16. (It’s not an invasion of privacy, it’s because we don’t want her groomed by a man in the same way I was -she witnessed DV when she was about 2-3).

Luckily she’s currently still into Minecraft, Anime and dinosaurs, and fields off friends chat about love/sex with blush emojis.
She’ll use a wtf abbreviation here and there, but doesn’t swear. But the sh *t these young teens chat ! It all sounds daft, but they really are finding their feet in the world.

You’ve got to step back, yet let her know you’re there for support.
Her brain is buzzing at 50,000 miles an hour. Cant you tell this when she emphatically states things to you that she finds mindblowing, as if she’s the first to discover it, but you obviously already know, like, “Mumma, did you know aborigines are older than Australians??!!!!” That sort of thing.

It’s like watching a 5 year old given access to an advanced encyclopaedia brain implant and they don’t know what to do with the amazingness of all this new information all at once. It sends them spinning, and on top of that, they feel uncomfortable with things they shouldn’t, and that makes the, feel guilty, like they don’t feel comfortable cuddling Daddy anymore, but can’t quite understand why, or they lately ‘hate’ their sibling, but equally love them, what’s that all about they wonder.

I’m useless at discipline so I let her flow, but the best way of talking to a young teen I find is engaging them in an activity they —mildly suffer— like and without too much eye contact or direct questions (they can’t properly verbalise how they feel yet and that frustrates them), gently ask about their interests, their worries.

You can also always ask the school pastoral team for advice. Kids might struggle to transition into secondary school life for the first year or so. My daughter used to stand ramrod straight like a statue at break times, hiding behind pillars. Pastoral care got involved and discreetly engineered a similarly frightened, lonesome classmate to buddy up with her at break times.

I find this process fascinating, and by stepping back and not taking everything personally, because it isn’t her against you, it’s her against the world, you’ll find a way to co-exist with your daughter as she goes through this life changes.

Nenevalleykayaker · 15/03/2021 11:11

Oh that’s a long post, sorry !

CharityDingle · 15/03/2021 11:14

@Nenevalleykayaker

Oh that’s a long post, sorry !
And the thread is ten years old.
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