Key points

Many teens want to seem independent even though they may not be as confident as they appear.

Even adolescents work to establish their own identities, they still need our support.

Teens can push our buttons. The less reactive we are, the more effective we can be in helping them.

I have always thought the phrase “Hire a teenager while they still know everything” was a very clever sentence. It works on the premise that teens think they always know best and, therefore, think they “know everything.” It may be funny, yet it belies a real truth, which is that teens often act as if they know more than they do.

Think about the last time you tried to instruct an adolescent about something. Did they act with an indifference that implied you were boring them? Did they cut you off m

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