My son (13 as well) is often this way. feels he has no friends, is good at nothing. My husband and I try really hard to get a grip on it, but it is really hard. My husband often gets really frustrated at the mopey sad thing and I try really hard to encourage him and give him more responsibilty and let him make more decisions for himself. It is a double edge sword. I think that no matter what, they are going to be pressured to be perfect and then they fall short or don’t do what they think they should be able to do. There is a lot of pressure out there and I think that with all the doctors/teachers/tv saying that 13 year olds are supposed to be depressed and sad, that is exactly what they are. We let them use excuses and let them get away with the give me everything attitude and do it for me attitude. I do the best I can, that is all we can do. I have been 13 and was depressed and thought no one loved me…it gets a lot harder when they do grow up, but they will, and we just have to get them through it, so to speak. I believe there are no answers, only more questions.
I just talked to my son to see what he thinks, he said to trust your daughter to make the decision. It is really only at school that he feels depressed because he feels picked on, not at home, he feels safe here.
I think our kids are so programmed to make sure everyone likes them or approves of them that they don’t know what to do anymore.
Good luck!
