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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Have you tried smacking her?

Actually, I was saying don't hit your younger, bitchy, 14-year-old sister. That was my advice to my intern today, who was bemoaning the fact that the youngest girl in the family was about to top off her behavior with a spinning head. Or at least that's what her long suffering parents were thinking.

I told her to a certain extent, welcome to the world of a 14-year-old. Now, that said (as I was relaying this story to my daughter, she started to glare- "you didn't say I was like that did you!" No, actually, you weren't that bad..at least most of the time.)

But some girls do in fact turn into secretive (this young woman only talks to her parents in grunts and glares), snarky, sarcastic beings, who feel ALL adults (anyone over 20) are idiots. They seems to wake up from this alien abduction at about 16 or 17, maybe even as late as 19 (when they figure out who is paying for college).

I told my intern after listening sympathetically to the snarkiness her mom was taking, to tell her mom to stop taking it. For now, she's going to have to be the bad guy and tell her daughter "You might not like me but you..will...not..treat...me...this...way" And come up with some reasonable consequences if she doesn't. As I said, slapping her is not an option, although that's what my bro threatened to do when I told my mom to shut up at 13. Yeah, didn't do that again.

And putting her out on the street to starve is not a good idea either. So I suggest hit her where it really hurts. Take away texting privileges. Otherwise, you might get a few women I have in my life who were never told "no" or made to behave. Believe me, at 50, it's no longer cute.

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