• Do set limits. Early and middle adolescents need the safe boundaries provided in which to grow and function.
• Teasing an adolescent child about physical changes is inappropriate because it may cause self-consciousness and embarrassment.
• Adolescents require privacy. Ideally the youth should be allowed to have his or her own room, but if this is not possible some private space needs to be allotted.
• Parents need to remember that the adolescent's interest in body changes and sexual topics is a natural, normal development and does not necessarily indicate movement into sexual activity.
• Parents must prepare their children for independent living. Teach the teen to manage his or her own affairs including cooking, cleaning, laundry, writing checks, making a budget, handling credit, driving, taking care of health, balancing work and recreation, time management, and decision making.
• Parents need to recognize and be prepared for commonly occurring conflicts that may develop in parenting adolescents. The experience may be influenced by unresolved issues from their own childhoods as well as unresolved issues from the adolescent's earlier years.
• Parents can anticipate their positions of authority to be repeatedly challenged as children enter and move through their adolescent years. Maintaining open lines of communication and clear, yet negotiable, limits may prove useful in minimizing major conflicts.
• Be a good role model. If you want a teen to behave in certain ways, it is very important that parents also behave in these ways. Modeling is a large part of what adolescents learn.
• Remain a constant and consistent figure. Be available as a sounding board for the youth's ideas without dominating and overtaking the emerging, independent identity of the young person.
• Use resources. Remember that parents don’t have to go it alone. Psychologists are frequently contacted to assist parents with common problems such as:

• How to set limits without conflicts
• Concern about grade changes
• Concern about behavioral changes, sullenness or troubled friends

Remember. When you need to talk to someone who can help, you need an experienced, licensed psychologist.