I don't know if anything is wrong with my eight year old daughter or if it's normal!

[nelsontammy2002]

My eight year old daughter is overall a pretty good kid, she knows about respect and how to listen, BUT, it seems that telling the truth is becoming a foreign thing to her, she lies about everything and nothing. She has stolen from stores and from people at school. She knows she'll get caught but yet she does it anyway. She cries about everything, we don't yell at her very much but as soon as we try to talk to her the waterworks start and when we can finally get her to stop crying we ask why she did whatever she did and she blankly stares through us and always answers "i don't know". It's always a fight to get her to do her homework even though she knows what she's doing, and sometimes it seems she gets the answers wrong on purpose and then cries about it and finally after the long drawn out session she does it all by herself the right way. It's very frustrating to talk to her because when she has nothing to say she is the loudest person in the room but when we try to have a conversation with her about something meaningful she closes up and we can barely understand her because she mumbles.
My daughter is the best thing that ever happened to me but I just don't know what to do with her. PLEASE HELP!!!

[christine439]

She was doing a lot of the same things and it was driving me crazy.  I read a book called the Five Love Languages of Children.  It helped me so much to understand her.  She was acting out in passive agresive behavior because she was angry and she didn't know how else to express it.  I learned that her primary love language was touch and words of afermation and after having my now 20month old daughter I was more snappy with her and didn't want to cuddle her as much because I was drained from holding the baby all day.  Check out this web sight.  I hope this book will help you as much as it did for me.

http://www.fivelovelanguages.com/books_familyparenting.html

[tiredbuthappy]

it sounds like attention seeking behavior to me, and the suggestions of the first poster sound like a good idea. and i don't mean to imply that you are not giving her enough attention (i know nothing about your family life after all). but some children just naturally require more attention than others. i do not have a child that age, but i have worked with children of all ages. i agree that it sounds like she is having trouble recognizing and/or expressing frustration, anger, neediness, etc... appropriately. in addition to books, i would suggest a parenting class. i was required to take one in my teaching certification process, and i learned more about managing children in that class than i did in any of my other classes. i would suggest it to all parents, not just those struggling, because it helps you to understand why children behave in a certain manner (and believe it or not, it's not just to **** you off!! :) a family councelor or psychologist may be able to help as well.