10+ Stories That Prove Parenting Teens Can Be Tougher Than Raising Babies

Sleepless nights and dirty diapers might seem like the toughest part of parenting, but that’s just the warm-up act. The real challenge begins when your baby becomes a teenager. Suddenly, you’re dealing with slammed doors, eye rolls, and a kid who has opinions, secrets, and no interest in your advice. If you think toddler tantrums are bad, wait until you’re negotiating curfews and decoding one-word texts.

• My teenage daughter was talking non-stop about her new history teacher. She praised how “smart” and “handsome” he was. The next day, I showed up early for pickup and saw them through the classroom window. My jaw dropped when I realized he was my ex from college! I debated walking in, but didn’t. I admitted the truth to my daughter that evening, and she squealed, “That is so romantic! Can I be your maid of honor if you get married?” Turns out she’d been planning to matchmake us since day one.
• My 13-year-old son decided he was going vegan. Not just him, he insisted the whole family had to do it too. He said eating animal products was wrong and that we should all make a change “together.” He threw out the cheese, gave away the eggs, and replaced everything in the fridge with lentils and tofu. Even birthday cake was banned, he made us eat a strange banana-oat bar with no frosting. We went along with it, even though no one was happy. After a few weeks, we were all tired, hungry, and dreaming of butter. Then one day, I picked him up early from school. I saw him in the cafeteria, laughing with friends and eating a slice of pepperoni pizza like nothing ever happened. He looked embarrassed and said, “It’s a school challenge. Whoever stays vegan the longest wins a prize. I was just trying to win. I didn’t think you’d actually do it too.” At home I am back to making normal meals, and I told him next time he starts a challenge, the rest of us want a vote. We all agreed: no more food challenges unless there’s enough pizza for everyone.
• I was naping on the couch when he came up, opened a bottle of water I had next to me, poured it on my crotch and asked me why I pee’d myself. © Bluemoondrinker / Reddit

• I thought my 13-year-old was up to something bad. Couple days ago, I saw him unlock his phone. He went to practice and I gave into curiosity. He is actually a really nice and cool nerd. I figured I was already a bad parent for looking so I browsed it all...texts, Facebook, and Instagram. It’s was all chatter about sports, video games, and horse masks. His pics were of his siblings and passed away grandmother. I felt horrible for not trusting him. © awod76 / Reddit
• My 14-year-old daughter ordered a single cookie to her dance practice yesterday for $12. It is not a learned behavior; we would never order delivery due to the cost. She figured out a way to do it through Safari to not have to request the app, as her apps are managed. She’s not a spoiled kid, she knows that the cookie cost her near 3 full weeks of household chore allowance. We regularly discuss money in a real manner, something that past generations have lacked. I’m not going to punish her for what I consider a bad spending choice, but I also think it is a foundational learning moment about savings and want to handle it properly. It’s a different world. She’s not motivated by savings for expensive games or clothes as I was at her age. © Electronic_City6481 / Reddit

• My teenage stepson (17yo student) has a habit of “taking me to school” anytime I tell him about something. Even if it’s something I’m pretty sure he knows nothing about, he will act as if he’s some kind of expert on the matter. This is very frustrating because I have been interested in sharing something with him and having a conversation about it. Then it usually turns into him already having known about this for some time and knowing more about it and devolving it into something meaningless. This has happened several times where he was actually up to speed and I had the opportunity to learn. Unfortunately, the majority of the time, he is just talking out of his — you know what — and I’ll later check his facts, and they are completely wrong. Not just out of context but completely uninformed and an obvious guess at the subject matter based on key words and assumptions. He has even gone so far as to sum up his “lesson” to me with things along the lines of, “I tried to tell you about this months ago and I can’t believe you never knew this” confidence with such empty rhetoric. His mother and I have sarcastically joked with him and around him that he is an expert chef, woodworker, mason, electrician, IT guy, historian, philosopher, pop culture guru, tax professional, real estate agent, mechanic, dog whisperer. His “knowledge” knows no bounds and it makes it impossible to teach him anything. . © JerimyAlan84 / Reddit
• I bought my 15-year-old son a new pair of jeans—same size, same brand as usual. He tried them on, looked in the mirror, and immediately threw them on the floor. “They’re too stiff, they’re weird, why do you never listen?” He stomped to his room, slammed the door, and wouldn’t speak to me for the rest of the evening. Two days later I saw him wearing them. “They stretched out,” he mumbled. No apology. Just the jeans. Classic.

• My 15-year-old daughter is friends with a 20-year-old guy. They are just friends. They met on social media because they shared common interests. She tells me, “Dad, am I stupid? Dan and I are just friends.”
  Yesterday, she went to his birthday party with a sleepover — he lives in the city, and we live in the village. I have nothing against it: I know his address, his and his parents’ phone numbers.
  And then in the evening, I got a call from his mom, “Blah-blah, Mr. Matthews, don’t worry, thank you very much that you trust our son! Lena will sleep on the sofa in the living room, don’t worry.” I thanked her, but thought to myself — the only person I trust here is my daughter. © feldkurat / Pikabu
• My daughter once told me, “I’m basically an adult now.” She was 14. So I handed her a laundry basket and said, “Adults do their own clothes.” She disappeared into the laundry room for 45 minutes, then emerged triumphant. “See? Done.” Three hours later, I opened the machine. She’d washed an entire load...with pancake syrup. Her explanation: “It said ’add a cup’ and there was a measuring cup on the counter from breakfast, so I just... guessed?”. We both cried. Me from laughter. Her because her favorite hoodie smelled like breakfast for a month.

• At 8 p.m. on a Tuesday, my daughter suddenly remembered she had signed up to bring 60 brownies for a school fundraiser the next day. We didn’t have enough sugar or eggs. My spouse ran to the store while she and I started mixing. She learned quickly that baking is not as easy as it looks. We finished at 1 a.m. The brownies were uneven, but they made it to school. She hasn’t signed up for another bake sale since.
• My niece is 14. She recently threw a tantrum, screaming that she has an unhappy childhood. Because she can’t go out after 8 p.m., she can’t post her photos in a bra (and her friends can), she can’t use her phone at night, she is forced to go to the pool once a week.
  After that she promised that she will make her mother divorce her stepfather, and she’ll go to live with her grandmother, because there she doesn’t control her and doesn’t make her do homework. The girl is just very gullible.
  So, when her “friends” tell her that they can go out till 2 a.m., and in summer their parents let them go alone to another city, she believes them. And when you ask her — how they traveled, where they stayed at the age of 14 — she shouts, “You don’t understand anything.” © evadoll / Pikabu

• My daughter is 16 years old. Those who have dealt with teenagers know what it’s like. Every day I hear how mature she is, that she is capable of making her own decision, that she will prove everything and do everything on her own, “respect me as a person,” and things like that.
  This year, she enrolled in another school to specialize in chemistry and biology. The new class teacher is very strict, even my wife is afraid of her. She is not like the daughter’s old class teacher, who had been running around them like a mother chicken since the fifth grade.
  One day, my daughter had to call her new class teacher for some reason. And my grown-up, independent daughter, a person capable of controlling her own fate, making decisions and fighting for justice, comes up to me, hands me the phone and says, “Dad, please call Ms. Donovan. I’m afraid.”
• My 14-year-old daughter begged for curtain bangs. I warned her they might be hard to manage, but she swore she’d take care of them. We booked the appointment. She came home, looked in the mirror, and five minutes later was crying on the floor saying she “looked like a Victorian ghost.” She refused to go to school the next day and blamed me for “letting her do this.” It took two days, a headband, and a lot of silence before she moved on.

Kids can be tough to handle, but with the right approach, parenting challenges can be solved and even turned into fun. Check out more here.