Originally Posted by
dontknownuthin
How old is your friend? Is her father part of her life?
One thing you can do is encourage your friend to recognize that her mom is a person and is probably acting out her own frustrations in life. Sometimes we are hardest on the people we love the most. Mom is probably facing financial problems, or spread too thin with all she has to do as a single mom.
Another thing she can do is, when her mom isn't on a tirade, try to sit down and talk to her mom and ask what she can do to help take some pressure off. She has to be willing to help. Even saying, "mom, I know you work really hard and are under a lot of pressure. It may not seem like it always, but I do appreciate it and I love you." Maybe she could say it with a card.
She can also surprise her mom by doing something helpful for her. When my mother was under a lot of stress when I was a teenager, my sister and I would clean the entire house when Mom wasn't home as a surprise. We did it several times and it really helped her so much. She appreciated it a lot. It made her feel less like we just took her for granted.
Sometimes though, parents can be depressed and stuck and there may be nothing their kids can do to help. In that case, your friend just need her own support system to work with the situation and not take too much of what Mom says to heart - to learn to hear it as "mom is venting her own stress" and not "mom means it - she hates me". She can go to a school counselor, confide in an adult relative or even get more involved in school or get a part-time job so she's home less and subjected to it less.
If her Dad is in her life, perhaps she could move to be with her dad, or he could intervene on her behalf.
Let us know how things work out.