Thankfully, I am not there yet, but I remember going through something similar at around 7th grade. A nearby neighbor, who I had played with since I was 5 or 6, decided she no longer wanted to be my friend. Instead, she hung out with one of the popular girls at our Catholic school. It stung.

I tried to get her back as a friend, and would constantly call her to invite her places, but she rebuffed. Shortly thereafter, I got the message and instead stuck with our other friends -- who she also outgrew -- and who I am proud to say have loyally stood by me and we are still friends today.

But I remember how much our "breakup" as BFFs stung so this letter at Mamapedia touched a nerve.

My daughter has a friend that she has known for quite some time. Since they started middle school, they don't have as much in common anymore, but they see each other a little at school and at horse events (once a month). They are not unfriendly (according to my daughter), but she doesn't really know what to say when I ask if they are friends. They just don't hang out much. There are several girls that have a similar situation with my daughter (who is 13). She seems to be struggling in the past 2 years as far as friends go.

So the other girl's bat mitzvah is coming up. My daughter is ambivalent about going. I would like to go because I am still friends with the other girl's mother and I like the girl (I am okay with them growing apart - just a fact of life, I think). I tried to explain a little about what the bat mitzvah means, but I am not Jewish, so I am limited in my explanation.

I am giving her the choice to go to the ceremony (I will go and would like her to go, but dont' want to insist), and she has water polo and will not be able to attend the brunch afterwards, but there is a party later also. Am I on the right track here? If she doesn't go, should I?

The moms seemed to be in agreement that it is normal for a middle-school-aged girl to grow apart from some of her friends. They said the mother should not insist that the daughter attend the bat mitzvah, although the mother certainly should go if she wants to. On the one end of the spectrum -- meaning one or two letters -- the mothers insisted the daughter go and said the mother could possibly "mend a fractured bridge." On the other extreme, one letter writer told the concerned mother to make sure her daughter wasn't being bullied or teased.

Overall, it sounds like a tough situation. Would you make your daughter miss polo practice to go to the bat mitzvah?

By the way, the friend that I wrote about and I are Facebook friends. (She friended me.) I look her up when I visit Miami, but we are not as close as those other friends of ours who I speak to and e-mail regularly.