By now we’ve established that teens and young adults do a lot of stuff that that they shouldn’t be doing and that we (hopefully) know nothing about. All kids of a certain age test the boundaries, as did we when we were their age. Most parents understand and accept this. But there’s always one among us who swears that his or her precious little angel is perfectly behaved at all times.

To these outliers, I say: Come on! Who are you kidding? What makes you think that your child isn’t drinking, cutting class, lying to you about his or her whereabouts, or engaging in some other meaningless act of rebellion?

Do these parents seriously believe that their children are going to skate through the teenage years unscathed and untainted, to be held out as shining examples of obedience and good judgment 100 percent of the time?

News flash: It is a biological impossibility for this to be the case, because our brains aren’t fully developed until the age of about 25! Even if our teens and young adults wanted to always make wise decisions and follow the straight and narrow, the fact is, they’re not equipped to do so.

Think about your own teenage years. Aren’t there things you did that you don’t want your parents to know about even 40 years later?  Trust me, the same holds true for your kids.

If your kids are savvy, they will successfully navigate their teenage years by hiding their misdeeds from you. In other words, they won’t get caught. But don’t get cocky; just because you haven’t caught them doing something, doesn’t mean they’re not doing it.

Not only is it normal and inevitable for kids to test the waters, I will even go so far as to say that it can be a good thing. Show me a kid who doesn’t step out of line during high school and I’ll show you a kid who goes wild in college, outdoing by far the antics of his or her peers.

So if you’re one of those parents who professes that your children don’t do what every other teenager does – at least sometimes – it’s time for a reality check. Get off your high horse, pull your head out of the sand, and join the rest of us in praying that our kids don’t do anything irrevocably stupid before their brains have a chance to put on the brakes.