How a Child’s Growing Up Becomes More Uncomfortable to Do

Key points

Growing adolescent differences are abrasive, wearing down dependence between parent and child.

The parent must maintain caring communication and contact so they can feel connected as they grow apart.

Change complaints in the parent-adolescent relationship are not a problem to stop but a reality to accept.

The more parents know about what adolescent changes to expect, the less they are likely to become upset.

For parent and child, adolescence (the 10- to 12-year coming-of-age transformation) often creates more troubled feelings and tensions between them, compared to how relatively uncomplicated and relaxed their old childhood relationship used to be.

Parent: “She’s become touchier to live with now!”

Adolescent: “They’ve become harder to get along with now!”

Neither