Then, without warning, she makes some comment about her brother and then launches into a myriad of complaints about how much he irritates her and how nice it is to be at her dad’s without him, etc… I have no idea where she is coming from but I basically said that she needs to learn to tolerate people who “irritate” her and work through her differences with people…especially with family member. She then says “gotta go” so I said okay, talk to you later.
D I have a 13 and a half year old daughter so I understand the mood swings. Have you tried validation with her? "I know brothers can be annoying and it can be frustrating". "sounds like you are enjoying getting a some space from your bother. I get that". The worst thing you can tell someone IMO in a heated situation is that they "need to do something". That's why you got the "gotta go". A better statement may have been "what can we do to make it so your brother doesn't annoy you so much?
