There's a famous quote, often attributed to Mark Twain, that accurately reflects the parent-child relationship: "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much the old man had learned in seven years."

Perhaps the reverse also holds true when we consider our children. We protect them as helpless infants, teach them to walk, talk, read, and so forth . . . until one day we realize that, yet again, they are looking over our shoulder patiently helping us navigate the Web, guiding us through the process of downloading music to our new MP3 player, giving us up-to-date style tips for a mid-life job interview, or broadening our world view by allowing us a glimpse into theirs!

Okay, it can be a bit jarring at first, but it can also be a signal that we've reached a point in our relationship with our kids where the old paradigm of "father/mother knows best" can be replaced with the idea that parents and teens--together--can figure things out as a team. And rather than viewing this as a threat to our parental authority, we should embrace it as confirmation that we've done our job as parents well.