Queen Bees and Wannabes, 3rd Edition: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of Girl World

Many parents ask

But you can be the adult your daughter needs you to be right from the beginning.

By the time kids are five years old, they can have super-intense relationships with each other. Archenemies? Sure. BFFs? Of course.

When I ask girls when their first conflict with a friend happened, the majority answered that it was usually in first or second grade.

By the time she’s a toddler, that girl is an expert on you. She knows how to push your buttons; she knows how to make you melt so she can get her way. She knows exactly when you’re so exhausted she can ask you for something that you would never say yes to otherwise. (If you’re a teacher reading this, you’re not off the hook. I think it takes studen

under no circumstances should you say something like, “I think you should read this book because…” Instead, say (and this goes for anything you see, read, or hear about relating to your children), “I just read this book, and I want to know if you think the writer is realistic, completely wrong, or out of her mind. Will you read it and tell me what

The hard fact is that kids have to develop boundaries with people by going through the process of having those boundaries crossed until it’s so annoying or painful that they can see that the cost of being in the friendship is higher than the cost of severing the tie.

Be really careful about judging, because sometimes your gut can give way to your biases.

so I think you must have a good reason for it.”