Oh Lulu what a lesson to learn! Hope shes ok.

We have a blended family with my two older dds from a previous relationship though i feel blessed to say our dramas are fairly minimal right now. Last year we did have a lot of boundary pushing with Jess, but alot of that was fairly age appropriate and a mix of interesting friends with limited parental involvement.

I have found that its so important to have the lines of communication open so that you can hear about anything and everything you possibly can about what is going on in their lives. Fortunately i have chatterboxes who seem intent on telling me every last detail..whether it be an 'omg mum you should have seen what this girl did today....' or 'mum this guy asked me out blah blah blah...'.

Because we had the blended family despite the fact that I seperated while pregnant with Emily and Darren has been involved since Emmy was 18 months and Jess was 3 I was and have always been the diciplinarian. Thats not a cop out for Darren who always backs me up, but I just felt that it was in all of our interests to establish that right from the very start.

Thanks for everyone for sharing your stories..it certainly helps knowing that we all are in no way alone...teenagers are interesting and fun but they can also be very tiring!

Jo