Family Dynamic

My female informant has been overloading me with information about everything but I decided to give my attention to a certain part of her life that is troubling her: her place in the family. I spent two long afternoons/evenings with her and her family and was able to observe some of the problems she had discussed with me previously.
Catie was concerned because her mom, dad, and grandmother give a lot of attention to her younger sister and not so much to her. I wanted to see for myself if she was just being a teenager or if something really was going on. Sure enough, I recognized it right away.
When I got to the house on the first visit, her mom was really interested in what I was doing and how my life was going. The physical space was the first thing I noticed. I was there to see Catie, talk to Catie, be interested in Catie, yet her mom seated herself right in between Catie and I so that we could barely see each other let alone speak to one another. Her mom kept the conversation most of the time, letting Catie and I get a word in every few minutes. I noticed Catie's facial expressions getting a little annoyed that her mom was taking up my time that I was supposed to be spending with her so I tried to move the conversation towards what Catie had going on in her life.
Catie's dad is not around as much because of his long hours at work plus an hour commute on top of that. However, her dad does show much more love towards Catie in his own way. He spends the money and time on her classes, after school activities, programs for her computer, and so forth. But like all teenage girls, sometimes the money isn't enough. He does spend the money on her sister but it didn't seem like he enjoyed it as much as he does with Catie.
Catie's grandmother definitely spent much more time pampering and paying attention to her sister than Catie. Most of the time that I was there, her grandmother stayed in her own room watching TV but when she did come out, it was like Catie was always an afterthought in conversation.
Her mom is much like her mother (the grandmother) in her treatment of Catie but was almost cruel sometimes. Catie was trying to finish up a project that she had asked me to help her with and her sister kept coming in and messing things up, touching things, picking things up and moving them. I could see the frustration on Catie's face and when she asked her sister to please stop touching everything the 5th time, her mom scolded Catie and told her not to speak to her sister like that. Her mom then used her typical tactic (which Catie had explained to me earlier) of telling Catie that neither her nor her sister were going to talk to Catie. She uses this tactic Catie explained because she knows Catie will eventually talk to them and then she loses the battle. I found this strangely cruel even though her mom only sees it as a game. However, Catie's sister has begun to take after her mom in using this "game" as well.
I think the hardest part for Catie is that she is really has no one to confide in or just talk to. Her sister is much too young to talk to, her mom just teases her whenever she tries to talk about something, and her dad isn't always around (plus some things you just can't talk to your dad about). Plus she lives in an area where her friends aren't just down the road and her parents are slightly strict on when she can go out or have friends over.