Parenting teenagers is a blast when they are making wise choices and you can trust them. We always told our kids that we will trust them until they prove to us that we can’t. They lived up to that trust.
Trust needs to go both ways. Our kids talked to us a lot. Sometimes about things their friends were doing that their parents didn’t know about…but should. It was a challenging position to be in. Especially when their friend’s parents were also our friends. We would find ourselves thinking that we would want to know if the tables were turned. If we told them what we knew, they could do something about it.
But, when our kids would tell us something and ask us not to talk to their friend’s parents about it, we always protected that confidence. If we lost the trust of our own kids, then they would stop talking. We chose to honor their trust over warning a parent.
There were a couple of times that we pushed extremely hard to talk to the parents about something our kids told us….and they gave us permission to do so. Those were extremes rather than the norm. It was always with their permission.
Trust is fragile. It’s worth protecting. It worked for me…
it has worked for me 
I will always remember you telling me that! Thanks for all your wisdom!