Aug 09, 2026 Features / Columnists, News

(Kaieteur News) – One day you are the smartest person your child knows. Then adolescence arrives, and suddenly you apparently know nothing. The child who once accepted “because I said so” begins asking, “But why?” The boy who once happily went everywhere with his parents suddenly wants to stay home or go out with friends. The girl who once told her mother everything now closes her bedroom door, guards her phone, challenges household rules, and insists, “I’m not a child anymore.” Before long, a familiar parental question enters the conversation: “Who you talking back to?”

For many adults, this change feels personal. A parent who has sacrificed for a child may interpret questioning as disrespect, privacy as secrecy, disagreement as rebellion, and independence as ingratitude. Yet psychology suggests that something much more complicated is happening. Adolescence is not simply the period when children become difficult. It is the period when they begin the uncomfortable psychological work of becoming separate people. That process can be messy.