Is 15 the hardest of the teenage years?

12 Comments

After many discussions with other Mum’s, as well as my own experience, it seems that these days the problem years for teens are 14 to 15 years of age! Is it getting younger?
Experimental drinking, skipping school, drinking at school, shoplifting, behavioural and attitude problems, sexual curiosity, sexual orientation and drug experimentation are some if the issues that have been raised in my discussions with Mum’s of teens in this small age bracket. Shocking isn’t it? I’m not saying all 14-15 year olds behave or experiment in this way, but I bet they know other kids (yes, kids!) their age that are.
Unfortunately my child fits into four of the above described behaviours/activities! But there was one more concern of a technological nature that I have not mentioned – social media. We have all seen the documentaries, heard the warnings and I’m sure we’re all vigilant parents with privacy settings and other forms of internet protection for our kids. But when it happens under your own roof it’s quite horrifying! In our house we have had to recently deal with ‘grooming’ behaviours from older men towards our 15 year old via social apps such as Kik, Keek, Snap Chat and others where settings are minimal and anyone can find you and make contact. It’s not until the contact is made that you have an option to block someone, therefore profiles and photos are out there in the social media world for anyone to look at and make contact. Photos of older men showing a bit more flesh than necessary are not a welcome intrusion in our home – so apps have been deleted, phone confiscated, laptop usage for school work only but in the communal areas only, close monitoring, meetings with the school and counsellor, and this year devoted to a focus on study and school! Is this too harsh? I’m not sure but we certainly haven’t just implemented punishments without real discussion and support for any underlying issues – hence the appointments have been made with Head Space, a place just for young people needing help and support for anything from bullying issues to more serious psychological problems.
So fingers crossed that we make it through this year (Yr 10 being a very important year) with our sanity intact and a daughter that knows she is loved and supported but needs to take steps towards the right path – happy to hold her hand along the way but you teenagers, that would be so, like, uncool!

Posted anonymously, 5th March 2014

12 Comments

- - My Littlebuttons said
  - 16 Jun 2022
    1:56 pm
I think 17 is the bad age I remember myself at that age left school no job just bumming around

- - mum888 said
  - 03 Jan 2016
    7:21 am
15 was a bad year as I have a controlling mother ( who cant see their children growing up ) and she was still telling us what to wear , how to dress etc. Rebel, rebel , rebel !

- - mom81879 said
  - 13 Sep 2015
    6:50 pm
My teenage years were horrible from age 13 to 19. I didn’t enjoy them at all, mostly due to severe acne. I never got into trouble such as in your story though. Now that’s scarey!

- - mom94125 said
  - 21 Jun 2015
    12:02 pm
i don’t know. we are yet to get there. media doesn’t project good images to our kids

- - coppin85 said
  - 12 May 2014
    6:46 pm
some guys are horrible – they should not be contacting 15 year olds!

- - kathryn said
  - 29 Apr 2014
    9:39 pm
fifteen is hellish – I just think back to when I fifteen!

- - hopefullyheidi said
  - 20 Apr 2014
    12:35 pm
I hope things are improving in regards to your daughter. I seen mum go through a tough time, that also coined with her blood pressure not being great (totally unrelated) and another health issue at the same time as dealing with my sister.

- - yyon4699 said
  - 29 Mar 2014
    9:48 pm
Good luck, stay strong and I’m sure you both can make it!

- - jodie80 said
  - 21 Mar 2014
    11:01 am
ive only got 9 years to go till they hit 15

- - hopefullyheidi said
  - 18 Mar 2014
    12:28 am
I agree with you it’s getting younger and younger. There is almost a generation gap between my sister and I and I have seen my mother go through absolute hell on the age group you have described with her. I’m not saying I was an angel but the we certainly didn’t have the technology they have now like Facebook etc to further amplify behaviours. I’m fearful of the coming teenage years with my own child.

- - jodie80 said
  - 16 Mar 2014
    10:06 am
lucky for my parents i was a good girl. i hope my kids are the same.

- - yyon4699 said
  - 06 Mar 2014
    6:47 pm
WHen I was 15, my mum certainly had the worst year of her life. I was rebellious, i screamed I hate you at her almost everyday and gave her pretty much the worst treatment from a daughter which she didnt deserve at all. I still feel guilty from all that but yea I do agree with you.