Parenting is terrifying at the best of times, especially when your kids are young. However, parenting teenagers isn’t that much easier.

When they are youngsters you have the bonus of knowing where they are all the time but once your kids are older you have little chance of knowing what is going on. This inevitably causes parents a lot of fear in parenting teenagers for obvious reasons.

Here are just some of the reason why:

Teenagers have many opportunities to drink alcohol, smoke or do drugs if they really choose to do. This is a huge worry for parents and one that is damaging to their children’s health, so it is warranted.

In the same way, there are many temptations around there are is peer pressure too to deal with. Peer pressure can cause your teenager to do something stupid because they think they won’t be regarded as cool if they don’t follow the crowd. It makes it even harder for teenagers.

In our day we didn’t have these issues but now times have changed and just as much as we worry about the sexual relationships our children may have one day we also worry about consent. Whether your teenager is a boy or a girl the issue is still there, and this causes a lot of worry for parents.

It happens, kids are bullied regularly and there is no excuse for it but there are bullies and victims. The worry for parents is if their child is bullied and the effects on their health but also what happens if your teenager is the bully? Whether it be cyberbullying, name-calling or physical bullying it is an issue no parent wants to land on their doorstep.

It is said that this generation is more depressed than other generations and you’d have to ask why is that? Why are our youngsters struggling with their mental health more than ever before and how can we be good parents to kids of this generation? The answer isn’t easy, and the best parents can hope to do, is to support their children and promote a good mental health attitude for all your family.

Every teenager will eventually face the stressful time of exams and the Leaving Certificate is a huge event in a teenager’s life. It also affects the whole family as everyone does their best to ensure the child is looked after and in good health – physically and mentally.

Along with everything else, there is the question of personal safety as teenagers get independent and walk alone at times. Of course, parents try to get their kids to remain in groups as safety is in numbers, but it is a constant worry and one that most parents hate. The good news is that there are mobile phones to keep in contact with your teenagers, but phones have their own issues too.  

8. Digital lives

The reality is, teenagers are more digitally advanced, and they do live their lives through phones and devices. This means some teenagers converse mostly via text instead of chatting. Again, parents worry about the impact this has on their teen's lives and how to implement a healthy attitude towards devices.

There is nothing easy about parenting teenagers but then has any part of parenting ever been easy?