Teenager 1: I have a very close relationship with my parents. I value both of them. I love them both a lot. They’re always concerned for my safety, which is what I really value and appreciate. And, even though sometimes we don’t like having boundaries and that, they are really important to ensure… it’s nice to know that they have that level of concern, you know, ‘Where are you going? Who are you going with? How are you going to get home?’ And they can be very understanding, so especially with teenage girls, things change 10 times over. So they’re very understanding if at the last minute I ring them up and I’m like, ‘You have to come and pick five people up and drop them all home.’ They’re very… they’re good about that. And they really involve themselves in my social life and they get along with people really well.

Teenager 2: My mum, I have to say she’s very caring. Whenever I feel bad at any time and if I tell her that, of course, or if she notices, she’ll always try to help me in a certain way. So if I was doing bad in a maths test, even though she may not know the most at maths, at least she’d try and help me overcome some--the trauma of the entire feeling.

Teenager 3: My dad, I find that he more helps me on the schoolwork side of things mostly. And my mum’s mainly just kind and she helps me most often when she helps me feel a bit better when she’s around, yeah.

Teenager 4: The thing I like about my parents is they listen to me a lot. And, well, they play games with me. They interact with me.

Teenager 5: They help me with things that are important. They guide me. They mentor me.

Teenager 6: I like that my parents care for me and they just… I know that even when we are sort of arguing it’s because they think it’s best for what is best for me. And I like how they try and get involved, even though it can be annoying at times, getting sort of involved. But I like how they want to listen to what I say and support me.

Teenager 5: The support, thank you so much, mum and dad, kind of giving your opinions, letting me form my own.

Teenager 1: Especially if I have a test or if I’ve had a bad day or something, sometimes Dad will leave me a little note in the morning. When I get up and I read it, it’s just really nice to know that they listened and that they actually understood what you were telling them.

Teenager 6: When me and my brother fight, if it’s just a little something, I just wish that my parents would sometimes butt out because then that can escalate it sometimes to something bigger when it doesn’t have to be, like we could just resolve it by ourselves and then everything would be fine.

Teenager 4: The times I like my parents getting involved or butting in is mostly when me and Sampson – my brother – are having arguments about the chores. This is an example but maybe if I’m doing the vacuuming and he’s doing the bathroom, I might want to do the bathroom and he might want to do the vacuuming. So my mum would say, ‘You’re doing the vacuuming and you’re doing the bathroom.’ She’ll just make it easy for both our lives. It would be easy for her to butt in then.

Teenager 3: The times when I want them to get involved are probably when it’s more of a problem to do with myself and not a problem to do with a large group of people related to me or something. So, for example, in a social problem I probably wouldn’t be asking for their help or something but in, yeah, for example, more homework-related issue.

Teenager 5: I would like my parents to butt in occasionally with homework. I don’t want to exploit them because they’ve got a life too and they work heaps, kind of also giving you a bit of a routine and making sure that you’re not being lazy.

Teenager 6: I guess that I’d like my parents to sort of butt into my life when I’m sort of having troubles with my friends. If I come to them, I would like them to but, yeah, it’s just nice to sort of have the reassurance of someone older than you and who have probably gone through something similar to sort of help you with advice and stuff.

Teenager 1: Year 10 there’s been a lot of shifts in friendship groups. And it didn’t essentially involve me. It was other girls that would leave groups, and move and that. And that was fine. But then in the end basically you barely had a group. And it was a really tough week. And I kept--and I was coming home. I was just--emotional day, bit upset. But I told them everything and they were really supportive and they said, ‘What can we do? What do you want to do?’ Even to this day mum still asks me, ‘How are you going? Who did you sit with? How are you going today? Did anything happen?’ And it’s just nice to know that, even though it happened a while ago, they still think about it and they still have that in the back of their mind.

Teenager 2: I think to all parents out there, you should communicate every single day with them, unless it’s just a normal conversation. When you’re concerned about them, like if you see them maybe going to their room a bit more frequently, you see them having a bit more problems at school, maybe their grades are going down a little bit, show a bit of empathy for them.