I think I may have worked out why my daughter has been behaving the way she has been recently. As I explained in my post ‘Bullying Amongst Siblings’, my eldest daughter has been particularly aggressive towards her younger sister and it has been extremely unsettling for all of us.

This week I found out that my eldest has been having problems with her friends at school. Some of them have been shunning her and wouldn’t play with her. She was being deliberately left out of games at break times and the situation had built up to the point where she was thoroughly miserable. Finally, towards the end of last week, she broke down and told me all about it.

It made me realise that she had not known how to deal with her feelings of frustration and helplessness at the situation that she was in and so had been venting them out on her sister. When I explained that how she had been made to feel by her so-called friends was exactly how her sister has been feeling, the realisation began to dawn. She admitted that what she had been doing was wrong and I think there was genuine remorse shown on her part.

We talked about how to deal with the situation at school and the next day, to her credit, she managed to talk it through with her friends and it seems as though the differences were resolved.

So for now peace has been restored in our household, as well. I’m hoping it will last, though I know that’s a little optimistic and naive of me. One thing I do know is that last week was really full on, with lots of sports events and a few late nights. Tired children equal emotional children and emotional nine year old girls, in particular can be like a ticking bomb. I’m sure that a few nights of decent sleep and a quieter week will make all the difference.