Hi everyone. Okay, I know that teenagers are a peculiar sort (at least to us adults), but sometimes I truly don't understand what makes the (at least the female sort) "go around the block to go next door". My dsd is currently grounded until May 1. She got grounded - initially - as explained in my "...Stealing..." post and managed to rack up 3 more weeks (issued by me, mom, then dad) in 2-3 days.

So, last week was our week again for her. All went relatively well - no lies, no stealing, and only moderate attitude. Then, yesterday she got all moody about being grounded. I asked her what the problem was and why she was so moody. She started lamenting how unfair it was that she was grounded and started crying. I explained how much time was left and showed her on the calendar how the weeks were shown and that she was a little more than 1/2 way done. I asked her if she understood that mom, dad and I were not the bad guys, and that she was the one to choose the consequenses - she said yeah, but kept crying.

So, totally frustrated by the outburst, I pretty much begged her to tell me what the issue was now and why she was crying. She yelled at me that it was her friend's birthday and that she was mad at her because she couldn't even call her to tell her happy birthday. Well, now I finally go somewhere. So, I asked her if she asked her dad if she could have a 5 minute call to tell her friend happy birthday. I figured that maybe she did and was told no, which would somewhat explain the outburst from her. She said no.

So then I told her that it wasn't worth giving me a headache for something that a calm, logical, and respectfully asked question could solve. I told her to pull herself together, and take five minutes to call her friend.

Is this demonstration typical of most teenage girls? I can't measure by my upbringing as mine was not normal to say the least, so I flew as far under the parental radar as possible. She is definitely a drama queen, but really, is this normal? Can any of you tell me how to recognize the situation and how I can try to head it off in the future? I tried several times throughout the exchange to ask what was wrong, but to no avail. Is there something (a clue, maybe) that I could have missed?

She knows that her dad and I will usually give an inch if asked reasonably and she doesn't abuse our consideration, so I don't get what the drama was for.