You need a loving, growing, healthy relationship with your teenager. While it may seem silly to mention this, it is a unique parent who has actually thought about this and realized the facts.

-- Fact 1: Just because you are in the same family does not mean you have a loving, growing and healthy relationship.

-- Fact 2: While communicating at home may seem to be 'having a relationship', it's only part of one.

-- Fact 3: Building this type of relationship really doesn't have very much to do with your normal parenting jobs, like discipline. It goes above and beyond that.

Having a loving, growing, healthy relationship with your teenager means getting to know him as a person. Remember that adolescences is all about forming an identity. You'll want to get to know whom that person is, not just remember all of the pitfalls it took to get there.

It also means that you are the person you want your teen to get to know. Scary, huh? But don't worry! Your teen is your child, which means they will be more forgiving than most.

When you put these two aspects of building a relationship with your teen together, it's a pretty tall order. But the best part is that you do not have to finish to have the relationship. All you need to do is start working in this direction and you already have it.

(Source: Parentingteens.about.com)