Almost every parent reaches a point at which the rewarding routines of earlier (0) PARENTHOOD (PARENT) give way to the more bewildering challenges of life with a teenager. The onset of 1ADOLESCENT brings rapid physical, emotional and social change, and it is unsurprising that relations between parents and children so often grow strained. Behaviour that might once have seemed out of character becomes almost predictable: a degree of 2REBEL defiance is, after all, a normal feature of growing up. Teenagers are striving to establish their own 3INDEPENDENT, and this inevitably produces 4ARGUE over matters that adults regard as trivial. Parents quickly learn that 5PATIENT is more useful than confrontation, and that the most important thing they can offer is a sense of steady, consistent 6UNDERSTAND. Adolescents are often far more 7EMOTION vulnerable than their outward bravado suggests, and the reassurance of a 8SUPPORT parent remains enormously valuable even when it is loudly rejected. The teenage years pass more quickly than they sometimes seem, and most parents look back on them with a mixture of relief and unexpected affection.