Unhelpful pat societal wisdom: the "teens are monsters" thing, that teenagers will or even SHOULD routinely behave towards their parents in a way we'd consider abusive if they were both adults.
Teens aren't adults, and there are definitely some common patterns: increased reliance on peers, experimenting with different identities, some self-regulation struggles.
But they are also extremely different from each other, and can be dependent or argumentative or affectionate or mean or cynical or passionate as an individual.
"Teens are monsters" also hurts teenagers with mental illness or in abusive situations or just struggling. If all teens are believed to be monsters, actual symptoms of a teen who is ill or at risk or being radicalised just get written off as due to their age.
#parenting #teen #teenparenting