Why is your sweet-natured primary schooler turning into a tween with attitude? Dr Richard C. Woolfson explains this challenging phase.
You felt sure your tween respected you. Yet last week, when you asked to talk to her about her homework, she snapped: “Shut up, Mum! I’m trying to watch this video.” You were stunned by such rudeness.
If she speaks like that to you on a regular basis, then consider possible explanations. While this could be a sign that she has become cheeky and disrespectful, it’s much more likely that she is just expressing her natural desire to become independent and to show that she is old enough now make her own decisions.
She feels confident enough to tell you that she wants to choose when she stops watching her video. That doesn’t mean her disrespectful response is justified, but it may help you understand her motivation.
Was I rude?
Most parents react to a disrespectful comment either by being stunned into silence at their child’s unexpected assertiveness, or by giving an instinctive knee-jerk reprimand to her for speaking so rudely like that.
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