Although it officially takes 13 years to become the parent of a teenager, when you’re face-to-face with a young person as tall as you are, it can feel as if they were just a baby and then you blinked.
Teenagers are known for their frequent eye rolls and conversing with adults in monosyllabic grunts, but there are other hallmarks of the adolescent years that are less widely known — and often pretty funny.
For example: upon becoming a teenager, my child became towel rack-blind. They can no longer perceive towel racks, hooks — even doorknobs. Every towel they touch finds its way to the floor and stays there.
We scoured Twitter and asked HuffPost’s Parenting Facebook community for other hilarious things no one tells you about parenting teenagers. Here are some of the other unexpected surprises that those teen years may bring...
“When my son was 16 he decided he was going to start lining his bowls with cellophane so that he didn’t have to wash it.” —Sabrina Henk (Facebook post)
“They suddenly turned into their father. They couldn’t find anything, even if it’s literally exactly where I told them it was.” —Shannon Elizabeth (Facebook post)
“My teen is very cool but I still would like to not have every single lidded drink cup in the house sitting on her side table.” —Tracy Deakin (Facebook post)
“Wardrobe doors. Our 13-year-old never closes them anymore. No idea why!” —Melina Rojas (Facebook post)
“They are completely nose blind to the horrific odors coming from their room and SWEAR they don’t smell anything.” —Kristi Kempton (Facebook post)
“I started with ten forks and now I have four. I actually found some under the bed years after she left home!” —Cathy Davis-Meyers (Facebook post)