Friendships are important to teenagers on many different levels from being a support network to providing both positive and negative influences. Learning to start, change or maintain friendships is a skill teenagers all need to learn and work on. As children become teens, they begin to spend more of their time alone and with friends. This means that teens spend less time with their parents. Some parents worry that these friendships will take over and friends will become more important than family. But teens still need their parents to guide them.