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Teenagers Today's Health Advisory Panel Answers: How do I tell my daughter that her new friend is controlling her and telling her who to be friends with? She is deserting better friends! |
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| By
Chris Crutcher Author Licensed Child and Family Therapist |
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Question:
How do I tell my daughter that her new friend is controlling her and telling her who to be friends with? She is deserting better friends!
Answer:
I doubt that you can. Experience is the only teacher. One of the problems with telling kids our truths is that they never see them as their truths. And to be fair, they're not. Probably part of what she is going through is developmental. She may well see an advantage to what she is doing that you don't see. For her to see the disadvantage, she has to go through it. Our job as parents is not to prevent the fall, but to be there right after it. Of course if you see her being cruel to old friends, there is NOTHING wrong with telling her what you see and what your emotional response to it is.
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