Parenting a teenager is hard work, unlike when they were smaller but, if you can communicate with your child, from an early age, this will continue into their teens, and even later and will help alleviate a lot of trouble later on.

Teenagers are confused young adults, their bodies are changing and this causes them confusion, they're no longer kids, but not quite adults, so they call themselves the in-betweenies. They have mood swings and start answering back. Don't rise to this by arguing back with them, sit back, act calm let them rant and rave, then when they've finished just get them to sit down and listen to you. Tell them you won't be spoken to like that, ground them, take away their pocket money, explain why you've done it, and be calm and rational.

A lot of places have youth clubs for teenagers, or maybe you could encourage them to do after school activities. Or maybe a part time job to teach responsibility, and extra pocket money.

Set a time for them to come home and stick to it, many teenagers resent this but will thank you for it in later life, remember you were a teenager once, and maybe you were the same with your parents. We all want to bring up our kids better than our parents did us.

Communication is the key factor, when you tell them they can't do something rather than saying "Because I Said So" Explain why you don't want them to do it, the dangers of taking drugs for example, say it in a way you know they will understand. They might not seem as though they're listening, but believe me they are.

Friends are also a big influence, if one does something then the others may follow just to see what it's like, but if your teen is sensible and you've explained things right, they will say no. If their friends fall out with them because of it, you can just say "You'll soon make new ones" or "Well they obviously weren't true friends, as they'd never let you do something like that"