Dear Aunt Noor,

I am a mother and I have four kids. My problem is with my oldest teenage daughter. Lately she started to gain many strange bad habits from her classmates at school. She studies in one of the most expensive private schools ,and therefore all her classmates belong to very big families. In the past, I didn’t suffer a lot because she was young and she cared for playing and playing only. But now, I noticed how she has become different. She started to want a lot of things which she doesn’t really need but just because all her friends have the same thing or because she saw it on TV. She is scared that her friends would think she is not rich like them.

Now my question is how could I let my daughter drop such habits, and live her life simple and happily with what she has instead or imitating others?

Um Ammar

Dear Um Ammar,

I am so happy to see you focusing about such things and I wish all mothers think like you instead of encouraging their daughters to do such things.

It is normal for your daughter in such an age and living in such an environment to act like that, but that doesn’t mean that we should only observe  and let her do whatever she wants without teaching her what is right and what is wrong. Maybe if you don’t do what she wants, she would think that you are stingy and you don’t love her like all her friends parents do. Therefore, you should be smarter and let her do the right thing but by making it her choice. For example, I want you from time to time to tell her stories for girls, especially who she knows in her age, struggling to live. It could be a good idea even to let her focus on the news and to see how much people and children suffer and are without house or family. Also, take her from time to time for a visit to very poor people. Let her see how these people struggle and how they face a lot of shortage in food and money but they still fight and continue living.

Good luck

To ask Aunt Noor for her Advice , email her at noor@yemenpost.net