As your children get older they become much more independent.

Thanks to this independence, you have the opportunity to sleep in, leave them home alone and maybe even hand over the keys to let them drive themselves to their friends house.

The downside to all this is the 'wonderful' attitude that comes will all those hormones. To help you survive, I put together a couple life hacks to get you through the next 4 to 6 years.

  • Let go of your inner neat freak and accept that your child's room will look like the Tasmanian devil had a good five minutes to destroy everything - that's what doors are for
  • If your teen constantly asks you for money, give them a pre-paid debit card that once they spend the limit they have to wait to earn a new balance
  • Take your teen on a date night - long car rides to a theatre can be a great opportunity to get them to open up about what's going on in their world. You'll just need to make a no cell phone rule in the car to get them to open up
  • If you want to know what your kids and their friends are up to, make your home the 'cool' place to hang out. Yes, you're going to need to invest in groceries to help make this happen

No matter what, there will be days where your sanity will come into question but that's what friends and a night of adult 'juice boxes' are for.

Good luck!