Sure, parenting teenagers can be the most frustrating, demanding, exhausting thing there is. Just like when they were babies, only worse.

But better too. Now they can talk to you, now they have opinions, their own outlook on life, they're navigating their way to adulthood and I just love it.

It hits me, every now and again, however, that soon they will be young adults. And they'll be leaving the nest to live their own lives. And that scares the bejeebers out of me. Every day.

I know it's my job to lead them there, set them up for life post childhood, but sometimes I want to mother them, smother them, and never let them go, do everything for them, keep them dependent on me.

And I know that's not healthy. Something I'm reminded of every time I come across this post about Eight Things You Should Stop Doing for Your Teen Now. Why does this one keep popping up in my feed? I still do everyone of them. Maybe that's why.

Guilty. I've always loved watching my children sleep. Some mornings I even sneak into bed next to them for a cuddle. Before they're too awake to tell me to get lost. I have to stop. Or just start doing that on weekends. School days they should be getting up by themselves. I know that. Most mornings are full of me yelling for the 10th time, "Will you get up!" It doesn't set a good mood for breakfast. I love the snooze button as much as the next woman and appreciate a good sleep-in but you have to know when you can manage that. Any child who gets himself up at 8am to watch Youtube on a Sunday morning is capable of getting up an hour earlier on a school day.

Guilty. In a way. Who makes breakfast? Is putting the cereal box on the kitchen bench making breakfast? Sometimes I'll make bacon and eggs or pancakes, if I want to eat them, and then we all share. That's not indulging them. I've been packing lunches too, for as long as I can remember, it's easier if there's just a big production line. Which, thankfully, the kids have started to help with. I know the children of a friend of mine have been packing their lunches since they were old enough to whack a slice of ham and cheese between two slices of bread. Teaching children to think about how much they want to eat is a good thing too. Something I must improve on.

Guilty. Although schools still require a lot of parental signatures. Fortunately, a lot of it is online now. Super easy. I've been working on getting the kids to fill out all sorts of forms. They completed the census this year. They even shared the two strokes in the check mark on the voting paper in the same-sex marriage survey. They need to learn how much adult time is spent filling out useless forms full of useless information.

Guilty. Exacerbated somewhat by the movements back and forth. I know this is probably one of my weakest links in this list. I've stopped doing it as much as I did. Won't hurt you to do PE in your school uniform just this once. We're also in the habit of packing for school the night before. See point 1 about delayed starts in the morning. But this is something I know I can go cold turkey on.

Guilty. To some degree. Sure there are nights when you have to race to the shops to buy a piece of cardboard but both the kids are relatively good planners. As is their mother who has a supply of miscellaneous project material already in the house. Remember Playschool's useful box? It still comes in handy now they're teenagers.

Guilty. But a load is a load is a load. It all gets done. Unless it's still in a sports bag. But that's not my problem. I know I get too worked up finding a week's worth of underwear still tucked in tracksuit pants and shorts. But the fact they're happy enough to hang out a load, or do the folding makes up for it.

Not so guilty. That's been a scary transition but their schools actively encourage you to be out of the loop and I quite like that. More scary, because maybe I was that parent who was "involved", but now I'm just an observer. It's been great watching the kids develop relationships with the authority figures in their lives.

Guilty. Sort of. I was kind of horrified, deep in the middle of primary school, when these parents told me they had no idea about what their children were up to. Sure they'd be available to talk over things if the child raised it, but they didn't know what in week 7, project B was due for subject 3. I tracked homework like a hawk. But now I don't. Sure, I keep a vague eye on things. Look over essays if they ask me to. More often than not they don't. They're quite happy to deal with the consequences.

The list ends with this idea: What is your parenting goal? Is it to raise competent and capable adults? Yes it is. And to do that we have to back off and let them fend for themselves. Before we're ready.