Please help, I have no idea what to do with her. She has always been very wilful, but also bright enough that I can reason and negotiate with her.
Since she has started school, she has become a teenager, telling me I am doing things wrong, shouting at me, telling me I'm not a nice person, that she wants her Daddy when i tell her off (we are divorced).
I have tried both reasoning wioth her that it is not a nice way to talk, then I resorted to sending her to the naughty step when she is rude to me. I finally realised that I need more help when I smacked her last night, which I hate and have only done maybe 4 times in her life.
We used to have such a lovely relationship, her sister is only 15 months younger, but we were the big girls, and she delighted in helping me (putting clothes on airer with me etc). All she seems to want to do now is watch television when she comes home from school, she doesn't seem to want to interact with me very much.
The only thing I can put it down to (perhaps 2 things), 1. I was working FT for about 2 years, started working PT (school hours) around 6 weeks ago, 2. the kids at school are awful, badly brought up and speak to adults like this?
I am quite a strict mum, I insist on please and thank you, I wont put up with any nastiness between the DDs, but really I am shocked at the way she is behaving, I have always tried to teach both girls about respecting other people, and I am at a loss as to how to handle this.