There are many parenting styles for teenagers, but sometimes it feels like there are just two: cool and uncool. Often, cool, liberal parents are lovely: just trying to let their kids breathe. Then you get the other kind, doing the “cool parent” thing. The ones who are smug and tiring. Who make you feel fogeyish and hysterical about raising concerns (their attitude: “What’s the weather like in Daily Mail land?”). The ones who often seem misinformed and out of date. They are many things, but I’ve come to think they can also be dangerous.
Cool parents are out in force right now. The uncool ones too: the anxious and alert. The TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp is in the news for letting her 15-year-old son go Interrailing with a friend, prompting a discussion about children and parental permissions.
