In a recent survey conducted by national charity Care for the Family parents admit they are not confident in their ability to parent teenagers.

Only 15 per cent of parents said that they felt confident, whilst 62 per cent said that they felt most parents did not understand what it meant to be a teenager today.

The survey of 3,000 parents followed the successful seminar tour for parents of teenagers in 2007 presented by family expert Rob Parsons. The tour took its name and core material from Parsons' best selling book Teenagers! What Every Parent Has to Know.

Following the event, 88 per cent said they felt more confident about being a parent of a teenager, 93 per cent felt less isolated and 95 per cent had come away with a least one practical idea which would help them with their teenager.

The book and seminars attempt to offer a realistic assessment of the pressure parents and teenagers are under today, and have proven hugely popular.

"Today's teenagers are experiencing things that previous generations didn't - like the growth of technology, an expanding debt culture, the incredible pressure to be thin if you are a girl or muscular if you are a boy," he said. "These days it isn't enough to be an ace footballer - you have to be a good-looking ace footballer. All these pressures make life much harder for teens and their parents."

Parsons is keen to point out that many of the traumas of teenage life are part of the natural process of growing up.

"Adolescents are at a time in their lives when everything is changing: their bodies, their friends - and most importantly their brains. They are quite literally out of control with their emotions and feelings," he said.

"So it seems that testing teens are here to stay, but there is some good news," he added. "The changes don't last and the main task for parents is to just get them through."

The Teenagers! What Every Parent Has to Know tour is on the road again this spring with events in Ipswich, Hitchin, Sheffield, Peterborough, Manchester and Leeds.

The sessions aim to help parents understand what is going on in the minds of their teenage children, identify keys for dealing with the really testing teenager, and engage with some of the big issues such as sex, drugs and self-esteem.


For more information go to www.careforthefamily.org.uk/teens