Mums help 'problem teen' parents

A trio of mothers from Wigan have teamed up to help parents cope with unruly teens.

Lynne Ashcroft, Sharon Rutter and Adele Smith-Howarth formed 'Parents United' after taking a class to help them deal with their own children's issues.

The three met at local youth charity Rathbone's 'Surviving Teenagers' course, which deals with teen issues such as anger and crime.

The three believe that other parents can learn from their mistakes.

Adele says she went to the Rathbone course because she was struggling to cope with her teenage twins, who were having problems with truancy, stealing and anger.

She says it is important for parents in such situations to accept they are not coping and ask for help.

"I think parents need to be more pro-active.

"If people don't know what you are going through, then you're not going to get any help. You need to go out there and try and sort things out by communicating with people."

Parents United meet in Wigan at Bramble House Community Centre on Thursday mornings at 9.30am and Norley Hall Community Centre on Friday nights from 6.30pm Any parent or guardian with a child over eight is welcome For more information, call 01942 776 449

Lynne agrees that communication is the key, both with the teenagers and with people who are offering assistance.

In fact, she says the answer to a lot of the problems she faced with her teens was simply "asking them to speak to me, instead of all the rowing."

The three are now intent on spreading the lessons they learnt to other parents and Lynne says that people are responding to them precisely because they have been through the problems themselves.

"We want to help other mums who are in the same situation as us. Some of them are probably at the stage where they don't know where to turn to - and we just want to let them know that we're there and we've been through it."