Joanna Fortune: What happened to my sweet little girl?

"So much is written and said about the critical early years of our children’s lives, and again when they reach those tricky teenage years, but very little attention is given to the middle stage of childhood, the years between eight and 12."

You haven’t lost your “sweet little girl”, she is still there but she is growing up and she is now experiencing rollercoaster emotional, social, and physiological changes.

My 10-year-old daughter’s behaviour has changed dramatically over the past few months. 

She now rolls her eyes and sighs almost every time I ask her a simple question, and has started complaining about her “annoying” younger siblings.