Being the parent of a teenager is never easy, especially when you're worried they might be dealing with something that you don't know about.
However, many believe one mother has taken things way too far after she apparantly got caught out reading her 13-year-old daughter's diary, invading the girl's privacy in a way that left her understandably furious.
The anxious mum claims she noticed her daughter, who she refers to by the pseudonym Nova, acting out of character in recent weeks, going from being very sociable to suddenly introverted and quiet.
Keen to know if something serious was going on, she decided to take a look through Nova's diary while the teen was busy packing for a trip. However, she didn't bank on Nova walking in and catching her in the act.
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The mum says she's always had a good relationship with Nova, and says she had noticed changes in her overall demeanour over the past month.
Taking to Reddit, she wrote: "She was not going out with her friends as often, and she never really brought them up anymore. That's just one example, I guess, but I have noticed a change in her behavior. She was a lot more introverted and quiet.
"I tried to casually ask about her friends a few times, and she would mumble a quick response and return to what she was doing".
After having separate conversations with Nova's father Justin and her stepfather Michael, they both admitted they'd seen differences in the usually outgoing youngster.
Deciding to find out for herself, the poster - who goes by the username u/AITAdiary - waited until Nova was packing for a trip to her dad's house, and snuck into her room to read through her diary.
She continued: "I found a few reasons as to why she had changed. She has written that she was fighting with her friends, struggling to maintain friendships, and was having a lot of social anxiety problems.
"She didn't want me to find out about it, she wrote. She had said I would make a big deal about it".
Unfortunately, Nova caught her in the act leafing through her diary, and all hell broke loose.
Wondering in retrospect whether she'd made a terrible mistake, the poster recalled: "She called me a b**** and said it was an invasion of privacy.
"She told both Michael and Justin, and they think that it was an awful idea and I shouldn't have done it. I do feel bad about reading her diary, but I found out that she was struggling".
Fellow Reddit users advised her that this absolutely wasn't the way to go about ensuring her daughter was okay, advising her to instead try having conversations with her rather than betraying her trust.
One person wrote: "Try having an actual conversation with your daughter instead of snooping. I'm an adult and my mother and I had a strained relationship for two decades because of how nosy and how much snooping she did.
"To this day, it's unbearable for me if someone has access to my personal things. Stop doing this to your daughter".
Another warned: "Unless you handle this exceptionally well now, your daughter will never trust you with her feelings after this, nor will she feel she has privacy and will go above and beyond to hide everything from you.
"You don't snoop in your kids' diaries - that's their safe place. If she doesn't want to share things with you, that's her right. She's a teenager, she won't be sharing everything with you.
"She'll be dealing with teenage drama and emotions and will come to you if she wants to. Give her her space. Sincerely, the child of a snooping helicopter mother".
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