Gordon Flett

And then eventually Walter Conkite comes on with the news that shook the world.

And I sat there and my mother and my grandmother were there.

And of course, this is the like childhood is over in terms of my sense of innocence from this point on.

So my mother and grandmother said, well,

You're not going back to school.

You're going to stay here.

We're just going to talk about this because they wanted to try and make me realize that I'm, I'm not have to worry personally and just help through the confusion.

And when somebody shows that sensitivity to you, especially at a young age, you don't forget it.

In terms of knowing again, that if something were to happen down the road, you could then go and seek these people out.

And this is the key thing in terms of establishing these relationships.

There are times when young people in particular and suffering from mental health issues need to get help and need to acknowledge help, but they never will.

When you have a mattering relationship where there's acceptance, it's more likely that a young person would reveal to a mother, a father, a grandparent that they need help and that can set them off in a way.

I was even at a conference one time, unbelievable story, so I won't get into it, but I was invited to an anti-terrorism conference for my work on perfectionism.

And at the break comes a guy and he says to me, I'm talking to you now as a father, I'm not talking to you as a analyst for CSIS in Canada, which is our agency that deals with counter-terrorism and that.

Because my daughter has revealed to me that she's a student in Quebec and that she's suicidal.

So this is one of the first times when I said, you know, I'm here to talk about perfectionism, but this is where mattering comes into play.

Cause I said to him, whatever you've done to create a relationship where your daughter

will admit to you and your wife that she's feeling this way.

Keep doing that and just keep checking in on her and reminding her.

And a key thing that parents need to realize is that as kids get older and we get into the adolescence, all they want to be with their friends, they don't want their parents to bug them.