Kyle MacDonald

And recognising the roundabout ways that kids will often ask for help too, whether it be through their mood deteriorating or being in a bad mood or grumpy for a number of days.

So we have to set that foundation stone and we have to create opportunities to stay connected.

Often that starts young.

So if you've got little kids and you're listening, that time in just is really, it pays off later.

So having said that, then I think it's about recognising that actually it's our job as parents to still protect them from the world.

Even though, you know, 15, 16, 17 year olds will act like they're completely fine and they don't need our help.

It is our job to still coach and protect.

And that comes down to all those things that we talk about these days in terms of helping them manage screen time.

I'm not a big fan of banning things because I think we lose the opportunity to learn.

But it is our job as parents to make sure that we're on top of the technology, that we understand how to get devices out of their rooms or have them shut off after 9 or 10 o'clock, whatever it might be.

So they have that downtime for their brain to relax.

But also creating opportunities for family connection.

Because again, we can't get around the fact that actually it's the old dinner table research, you know, that it's really, really clear that families who eat together on a regular basis tend to have better mental health across the board.

So we have to make sure that as parents, we're still working all the way through adolescence to keep our kids mentally balanced.

Yeah, well, I think that will just happen, right?

I think, again, there's an old famous quote by a British psychoanalyst called Donald Winnicott that says that from the moment children are born, we're grieving their loss.

Because the whole process of parenting is that from literally the moment they emerge, they're leaving us.

And so some of that is tolerating the distance and recognising they might choose not to tell us directly about things.

And we can feel upset about that, but I don't think we necessarily need to feel bad or critical about that as parents.

As long as we maintain that availability.