Bill Gates's dad talks teen troubles

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NEW YORK, June 3 (UPI) -- The father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates said at a New York speaking engagement with his son that the software billionaire was a problem teenager.

Bill Gates Sr., 84, told the sold-out audience Wednesday young Bill Gates Jr., who was known as Trey at home, had numerous discipline problems as a young teenager that landed his family in therapy for two years, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

"Our family was pretty typical as families go, with conflicts arising between parents and children at a certain age," Gates Sr. said. "There's fighting against discipline, and that's the situation we had. In this particular case it was mostly between Bill and his mother."

Gates Sr. said the parents "would go to this consultant, and then Trey would go in. And eventually, this consultant said to us, 'You know, you have this war going on with your son, and you really should understand something: He's going to win.'"

Gates Jr. admitted to his teenage problems.

"Mom was on the front line," he said of his late mother Mary. "But Dad was in reserve."

"I had a lot of fun growing up," the Microsoft founder said. "I'm not sure I always made it fun. But maybe we could let parents here know that a very energetic kid who's pushing hard on the boundaries might turn out OK?"

"I think you turned out OK," his father replied.