Dr. David Coleman

So that might be worth looking at in terms of their general communication beyond the rouse over whether he can or can't do certain things.

Are there other opportunities for them to build relationship with him?

Are there any shared interests that they could have with him?

Do they get to show a level of understanding about him, where he's at, the kind of things that are influencing him?

And again, you know, the one thing that's hidden, I think, for lots of parents when they see perhaps if it's a significant shift in his behavior over the last year or so is again to think, well, you know, what could he be being influenced by beyond us?

So if the home is one environment, you know, school is another and his peers are another environment.

But then the internet is another hugely significant place that children and teenagers now are being influenced by.

And so perhaps there is, again, something

that he's doing online that is actually causing him a level of stress or distress that is then getting displaced and acted out in terms of home.

And so, you know, the whole thing is complicated.

It does sound like a situation where perhaps they as parents might want to go talk to someone like me, a psychologist or psychotherapist, just to see if they can get some insight themselves and

then maybe even for him to come so that they can try and understand, you know, what is leading to this real strong kind of pushback that he's getting, which sounds, you know, not a million miles off most teenagers, but probably a little bit more than that than most teenagers.

So hard, isn't it?

And yet every child has to struggle with death at some point.

And I think existentially, we have to come to some understanding of death and the reality of death and the fact that death is going to occur for all of us.

And so it's one of those things, I think, as a parent that we definitely don't want to shy away from when it comes to our children.

And equally, we definitely don't want to dismiss it as something that they shouldn't be thinking about.

because I think it's very relevant and real and appropriate for a child, even a 10 year old, to be thinking about death.

I guess some of what helps in my experience over the years working with children, teenagers, is to talk about their understanding of what happens when people die.

Where do people go?