13 in a few months and an absolute cow.

[BiscuitChart]

Please tell me what to do. I don’t really have any friends and I’m a single mum so I don’t know what is reasonable.

DD is 12 and 13 in a few months. I turn off screen time at 9.15pm on week days. Tonight she was screaming and crying and throwing things to be allowed one more minute. It was weird desperate behaviour so I said “ok, but I want to read what you’re so desperate to send”. She went apeshit.

oh. She’s also self harming with anything she can find as said she has constant suicidal thoughts. I’m scared of imposing boundaries and making her sad and then she’ll harm again. She’s treating me like shit just now, a few minutes ago threw my pillows at my head because she was desperate to text.

…help? I’m a single mum so this is hard. Do I take the phone? Is 9.15pm too early for a year 8? Do I delete Snapchat as she was so desperate to be on it? I’m scared.

I have no major advice other than-Please get her some counselling, and get rid of Snapchat. Sorry you are going through this @BiscuitChart

Personally I think that 9.15 pm is a little late but then I haven't got a self harming DD

Is the school aware of her self harm? Are they giving her any support?

If she has suicidal thoughts, have you taken her to A&E when she has them? As well as actually needing to see a Doctor this can often be the fastest way to get services involved for her.

Is her phone set up as a child account? You should be able to put limits on how long she stays in an app if it is.

Swiped is a really good tv show on phone use in young people. Do you think that she would watch it with you? If not I'd still recommend watching it yourself.

Helping Teens Who Cut should help you, and do you think that she'd be willing to look at something like the mindfulness workbook for teens who self harm?

I would also ask @MNHQ to move this over to the Teenage Section as you're more likely to get some MNers who have experienced self harming in there