Teenagers may look like mini adults, in fact, they may look like adults, but they are not; because their brains have not fully matured. Our brains mature from the bottom to the top, and from the inside out. It takes until our early 20's to have full brain maturation. Why is this important? It's important because the frontal lobe, which is the very last part of the brain to develop and mature, is the part of the brain that makes consequential decisions. It's the part of the brain that weighs different factors, and decides what's right. The part of the brain that is mature, is the limbic system. It's deep and low in the brain, and that's the emotional center. So we ask our teens to make adult decisions, without having the frontal lobe fully mature yet. It's not fair to them. They cannot make the decisions we want them to make. One example, you send your teen to a party. You've had conversations, like crazy, about drinking and driving and being responsible and not doing anything that puts them at risk. Your child gives you all the right answers at the dinner table. When they go to the party, that limbic system and their peers are influencing them. That part of their brain is going crazy, and they make a bad decision. It's not entirely their fault. They don't have an entirely adult brain yet. So, let's not forget that our teenagers are teenagers, they are not adults. If we ask them to make adult decisions and expect them to make adult decisions, we are fooling ourselves.