The up-sides of parenting teens

Determined to look at the upside of the 'scary' teen years, Helen O’Callaghan talks to a mum of five, who – despite the challenges – finds parenting teens to be an eye-opener in the best of ways, while a psychologist explains what’s really going on for teens

Aileen Hickie finds teens can energise parents. “You might get a bit jaded about certain subjects. They get so excited that it re-energises you to know more about it. They spur you on. And I like that they take risks in their thinking. I think we become cautious over the years.

The dire warnings about the nightmare teens start when your child hits the age of 10. Other parents – and for some unaccountable reason, even non-parents – smile knowingly and, with an air of superior awareness, utter words guaranteed to make any parent-of-a-tween uneasy: ‘you just watch out when she gets into her teens’ or ‘wait ‘til he’s 15’.

What, you wonder? What do you mean? How bad can it be? And filled with a nagging dread, you wish for a counter-narrative – someone who’ll cheerfully say ‘hey, there’s a lot that’s good about teens’.