Who is this kid?

It's a truism as old as time that kids will spend many of their years feeling like their parents totally don't get them. But sometimes they're more right than they know.

"I often talk to parents who look at each other and say, 'Where did we get this one?'" says Cynthia Ulrich Tobias, author of "You Can't Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded)" (Waterbrook Press).

It's impossible to quantify how much parent-to-child head-butting is normal and healthy. Some, certainly. But for those who can't relate to their children -- don't recognize themselves in them, aren't sure how to talk to them, find their interests and habits confounding -- parenting can be especially anxiety-ridden.

"It can erode the relationship," says Tobias. "You really want to keep the relationship between you and your child strong so you can preserve it and enjoy it, and for discipline and motivation to be effective."

A different outcome

Often what's needed is a subtle reinterpretation about the role of a parent, say experts. The goal, after all, is not to shape children in your image, but to guide them to the best version of themselves.

"If they do something you really disagree with, you openly talk about where you draw the lines and why," says Margret Nickels, director of Erikson Institute's Center for Children and Families. "But try to give your child wiggle room when they're trying to express who they are and are exploring and growing.

This may mean accepting your child's choice of violin over hockey or learning to admire his introvert tendencies, even as you keep up with your 600-plus Facebook friends.

"Kids want their parents to respect who they are and to be accepting," says clinical psychologist Paul Donahue, author of "Parenting Without Fear: Letting Go of Worry and Focusing on What Really Matters" (St. Martin's Griffin). "A lot of it has to do with not passing judgment and maintaining empathy and understanding."

It may help to talk about some of the more glaring differences out loud.

"I have parents come to me and say, 'My son or daughter is really lazy,'" says Donahue. "It's really important to acknowledge without moralizing that you're just different. 'I know you want to have a pajama day and we want to have a bike-riding day. How about we reach some common ground: Today we'll hang out in our PJ's for a chunk of the morning and tomorrow we'll do it Mom and Dad's way and go bike riding.'"

This can reinforce some larger real-world lessons, as well.

Expanding horizons

Setting a tone of mutual respect can actually help you enlarge your child's comfort zone.

"You don't want to force-feed, but you do want to expose your kids to things that are outside their normal experience," says Donahue. "Maybe you want to go to an art museum and they don't want to. So you say, 'We'll go for an hour and then we'll go to lunch and do something you want.'

"We don't expect them to love it, but we do expect them to try new things," Donahue continues. "And I'd be careful about taking their rejection or ambivalence too seriously. Often the payoff is many years down the line. You just explain to your child, 'This is something our family does.' They don't have to love every single thing the family does."

Beyond activity-based differences, parents can enlist a child's help in finding middle ground.

"If your child says, 'In order to do my homework I need to lie on the floor with headphones and a bag of chips and the TV on in the background,' rather than panic because that would never work for you, say, 'I'll give you three days to prove that works.' If the homework is getting done properly and turned in on time, they proved it can. If not, you get to say, 'Nice try.'"

It releases the parents, Tobias says, from trying to constantly determine and meet their child's needs when the needs are nothing like their own.

"It holds the child accountable and helps him figure out his own strengths and how to use them."

And emphasize your child's strengths as often as possible -- to yourself and to your child.

"We're a society that's constantly focusing on deficits," says Tobias. "We start screening for the markers of depression way before we ask 'What makes you happy?' Kids get to school and are immediately tested for deficiencies even before we ask what they do well.

Risk with pushing too hard

Sending your child the message that you wish they were a different person can have immediate and long-term consequences, says Nickels, of the Erikson Institute.

"When we push them too hard, it can be more about our needs than what they're needing," Nickels says. "We have to constantly sort out, 'Is this so that I feel better about myself, or is this about what my child needs or what's best for my child?'

"A lot of pushing comes out of a sense of protection and well intentions, but we give kids the message, 'There's something about you that's hard for us to accept.'"

Children who feel steered in an uncomfortable direction do one of two things, Nickels says.

Or they'll internalize a sense of failure.