If your daughter is anything like most tween-age girls, she has a little bit of an attitude. A surge of hormones, low self-esteem, friend drama—it’s all a bit maddening. It can be difficult to remember, but you were probably a moody kid once too—we all were! 

Even Mary and Joseph had to deal with a tween—remember when Jesus disappeared on them for three days as a 12-year-old? That probably caused some parental stress!  

Next time she seems to be spitting fire, resist the urge to ask “what’s wrong with you?!” instead, try “what happened to you?” Putting this spin on the words is a simple shift in mindset—rather than identifying her current emotional state as wrong, she can process what happened to her that made her temporarily feel this way.  

Listen to the Raising Godly Girls Minute with Patti Garibay: