I too think there is a middle ground. You can be your childs friend but you must be your child's parent. There are times when it is hard to accomplish both. Growing up in todays world is very difficult. The one thing we must do as parents is learn to listen to them. Listen without judgement. Remember a lot of the things they throw out there, they are just fishing for our reactions. If we can control the emotional response and keep the dialogue open our children will keep coming to us. It's when our kids don't feel comfortable coming to us, trusting us, that we have to start worrying. All too often I hear teens say my parents don't care about me, they don't listen to a word I say. When things get a little uncomfortable we tend to just want to shut things down. The answer is no because I'm the parent and I said no, period. If they hear that often enough they will turn to their peer group for answers and for acceptance.
oz
