Teenagers... For some parents, just the word is enough to induce a shudder. Along with the 'terrible twos', the teenage years are the stage that can make even the most confident parent apprehensive.
The last episode of our Parenting... The Truth series asks real parents about their experiences with the time of raging hormones, raging appetites and raging tempers.
Their answers are funny, frank, and often surprising, sharing everything from the moment they realised they had a real 'teenager', to becoming an embarrassment to their kids, to what happens when their teen gets a bit 'gobby'.
Some parents found the transition easier than expected, while others found their once-adorable child turning into a bedroom-dwelling hermit with a taste for slamming doors.
It isn't all trauma and tantrums, though. "The best part is the sense of pride that they're - hopefully - turning out to be quite nice, kind individuals," says Parentdish editor Tamsin Kelly, while another parent enthuses that having teenage children allows mums and dads to 'keep young with them'.
The first steps of budding teenage romance can be an emotional time for parents as well as kids - and not just because it's often the gateway to 'the sex talk' that can be just as excruciating for the older generation as it is for their squirming teen offspring.
"I felt as if I was going through the love affair with her!" one mum says of her daughter's first crush, while another reminisces about driving her teenage son to his first date. "He was so nervous, it was just so adorable!"
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