Hi there,

My 17-year-old's friend says she was kicked out of her home and I agreed to let her stay with us.  I spoke with her mom on the phone, and her mom said she was not thrown out, but that the daughter had been saying she was going to move out when she turned 18 (she is only 17) and the mom finally said, just go.  Of course, the mom does not really want her to be out.  I feel torn and in the middle because this girl is very sweet and tells me that she can't live with her mother due to her punishing her all the time.  Says if she does her laundry on the wrong day, she is grounded.  If she does not vacuum correctly, punished.  Says she does not drink or do drugs, but the mom is always accusing her of things she doesn't do.  I felt bad because when I talked to the mom, it seemed like she really did not like this daughter.  Said she had no friends and alienated all her friends, couldn't make friends, was unhappy all the time.  I have a feeling the daughter just does not want to bring friends to their house.  We sat down to dinner the first night she was here and she told me after that it was so nice, that her family would never do that.  She seems very responsible, works 7-3 on both Saturday and Sunday.  Mom shut her cell phone off immediately, so then hard to get in touch with her.  The girl went and bought a prepaid cell phone at Wal-Mart last night, so seems pretty responsible to me.  She gets good grades, does her homework.  I don't know what to do with all this.