Am at my wits end.

[earlgrey]

dd1 (9 in August) has just become horrible. To the extend that dd2 talks about it, giving me advice :If I were her mum, i'd stop her doing anything she wants. From a 7 yo.

After school today, I made them (they're usually starving) strawberry smooothie. DD1's wasn't right. It came from the same blender as dd2.

She shut us in the living room (no inside handle, so no chance of us all getting out).

Let us out, said sorry, now she's nasty again. Is it sleep? Is it her personality?

Where do I go from here? At school she's exemporary.

Well if she's okay at school you're halfway there! Could she be struggling to adjust to school after the holidays?

she is probably tired with not being back at school so long, but it does not excuse her behaviour though, you may want to sit her down and try and talk about her behaviour.

Have a quick look in the "Behaviour and Development" section and you will find no end of threads on the subject of 9 year old girls and their personality changes! It is like riding a rollercoaster isn't it, constantly wondering what will set them off. Its all in preparation for teens, loads of hormones starting to whizz around. But from the number of people posting on the threads it would appear to be very common behaviour.

I agree with cornsilk, if she's OK at school, then I'm afraid its a phase. (Hate to say it, but its a phase that lasts!) I always just completely distanced myself from dd, when she was having one of her tantrums. Then when she was in the happy, lovely zone, I asked her why she was like it. There's no point tackling her when she's hacked off. She's got a whole host of hormones wizzing around inside her now, so try to remain as calm as possible!

My sis has had same issues lately with dd age 8. Not so much bad behaviour but real stroppiness, hormonal outbursts and the like. Its scary cos it seems hormones are already kicking in, and they probably don't even know why they are feeling so angry and horrible sometimes. She just keeps a check on the behaviour, ignores the moods and sulks and angry outbursts and gives her lots of reassuring hugs and time alone etc when she's her normal self ! Not looking forward to my two dds getting to that age !

My daughter is 10 tomorrow and going through the same. Apparently the rewiring of the brain that goes on in teenage years starts at the age of 8 to 10 in girls.

My daughter started doing this when she was about seven--sudden mood swings for no reason we could discern. My husband actually thought she might have a brain tumour.

She's nearly nine now and seems slightly more on the level.

I have to push food down her the moment she's off the school bus because if her blood sugar gets low she's evil.