I don't know what I'm going to do about Charli.  Charli, my fourteen-year-old daughter, has gotten very mouthy.  She has been like this since she hit puberty 3 years ago when she was 11, but this year and last it has gotten especially bad.

Charli used to be very sweet and loving: she would tell me everything and tell me how much I was the best mother in the world.  Nowadays, I can't hardly get a word out of her edgewise and anything I do or say has to always bring on an argument (mostly from her).  It is beyond frustrating as all get out.

I don't know if there's something going on in Charli's life: whether she is hanging out with bad kids who have tried to influence her behavior, whether her grades have been slipping (she goes to school all year long; we live in an area of the country that promotes schooling all year long), if she is into drugs or alcohol (I only pray to God that she isn't!), or what, but something is definitely going on!

I intend on getting to the bottom of this if it's the last thing I do!

Maybe it's due to the needs of her little brother, Spenser.  Spenser is 5, but he has complex medical needs.  At the age pf 5, he cannot walk or talk and is totally dependent on my care, 24 hours a day.  When he was two, he survived an accidental near-drowning, but not without a price: he is severely brain damaged and will probably never get over it.  It has been very hard on all of us, but especially Charli.  She loved her little brother fiercely and now that he is getting all the attention, I suspect she may be intensely jealous.

I guess she is springing this attitude adjustment as a way of "getting back" at us because she is no longer the center of attention.  If so then I will do all I possibly can to try to repair our once-strong relationship.  After all, we aren't strangers: we are mother and daughter!

I don't know what will happen, but I am willing to try anything once.  Just say some prayers that Charli and I can communicate once again; I absolutely hate the "silent treatment" she has been giving me!!

~To be continued!~