My nearly 17-year-old daughter started sixth form at a new school in September. She seems to have fallen in with the ‘cool crowd’ and has become rude and uncooperative at home.
She went through a difficult phase around 14 but seemed to come out of it and we were relieved she had turned into a hardworking and generally quite pleasant teen.
Not now! She’s rude and critical, on her phone constantly, has let her tidy room become a complete bombsite, is constantly looking at herself and trying on new outfits, and doing the bare minimum of studying - if that. She’s pretty and has become vain and arrogant.
However my biggest worry is she’s started going out at weekends and just not telling us when she’ll be home. I can see where she is as our phones have tracking … often I’ll know she’s missed the last bus, despite saying she’ll get it. She’ll ask for a lift post midnight and if I say no, she says she doesn’t care, she’ll walk. I don’t want my daughter wandering around alone at night so we often give in and end up playing taxi at 2am or so.
How do we manage this? Is it normal for 17- year old girls to stay out as long as they like? She tells me her friends’ parents give them freedom and we are too strict. I don’t want her coming home at all hours alone though. She has done things like leaving her phone at home so I can’t track her - just to send my worry sky high!
I know she’s asserting her independence but I don’t know how to manage it. And I don’t like the person she is at the moment - rude, unhelpful, selfish.