Meowwwww

I am homeschooling my eleven year old daughter. She has developed an attitude that I have no intention of tolerating. It's probably a typical young teenager attitude, and it's not from homeschooling. She has friends and I think she is within the bounds of normal in how she is acting, however I am having to turn into a disciplinarian. I think it's a combination of hormones and boundary pushing. I have told her that I will be giving her a uniform and not letting her have the freedom that she has enjoyed and she rolled her eyes at me and stalked out of the room! THE LOOK can be intimidating and I discovered that I was afraid to ask her to do something thinking of getting it! (I am a lot like Mrs. Weasley in Harry Potter and I have a large family to go with the character.)

This wouldn't have worked with my older two daughters. They have different personalities and when they were snippy with me I was like, "Screw this! Who do you think you are talking to? This is your MOM! Do not cause me to sin on your little heads!" This caused ripples of laughter and they knew it was time to shift gears which they did. Miss Sunshine however, glowers at me when I say that, then she goes off at me, "Well, YOU are ruining MY day!" Hmph!

I am thinking of getting her a uniform of a plaid or navy jumper and getting several and removing her other choices and being strict with her-- this will be worn every day including to church and she will earn the right to choose how she will dress and what options she has. Unlike my older two daughters, she looks a few years older than she is, likes make-up and I think is more predispositioned to making bad choices. (Of the elder two, one is a science major in college and the next older is going to get a scholarship to study Asian languages. Sunshine is more likely to do be a free spirit. I am a free spirit, but she spits venom at times. This is terribly not acceptable.)

She used to act snippy and I'd warn her and she'd get huffy, so I'd grab her hands and dance with her. This does not get me anywhere anymore.

She is a sweet girl-- I just see this attitude popping out from time to time and it is so not right and only serves to make things worse if she keeps on with it, not to mention how she will react as she gets older and teach the younger siblings.

It may not be too bad-- I showed her the jumpers and she liked them and my almost 5 yo came over and declared her love for them. Maybe I will have them dress like that. They all match. The boy's clothes look decent-- I need to see how they wear and think about it.