Hi Parents!   It's been a really tough time for our young people over the last couple of years, so we recently put together a Reflective Letter activity for them to try over on our Youth Forum. It's an opportunity for them to properly reflect on what challenges they've faced, how they've coped, what they've learnt about themselves and what they are looking forward to in the future. A really great tool for them to acknowledge how adaptive they've been and take some time to feel proud of what they've achieved.   We wanted to share it here too, in case you wanted to pass it onto any of your children that might benefit from this activity    |   Hey there!   So let’s be real– the past two years haven’t been easy on any of us. We’ve all been through so much, and sometimes those challenges can weigh us down.     Psychologists have learned that the act of reflecting on our challenges and our growth is enough to make us feel happier. Often, this kind of reflection can be as simple as saying ‘thank you’. You can grow so much by experiencing that feeling of gratitude. That gratitude can either be towards ourselves for staying strong during hard times, or it can be towards someone else in our lives for helping us get through them.   That’s why we wrote two templates for ‘thank you’ letters. We’re inviting you to take part and write one of these letters yourself!      Here’s how you can do this:   Think of an emoji that describes how you’re feeling right now. (This will be relevant later!) Check out our templates below. Follow the instructions on the letter template. Come back and share on this thread. Just remember, you don’t have to post anything that you don’t want to share. If you want to share your whole letter, you can. If you just want to share a quote from it, that’s also okay. If you don’t want to share anything, feel free to just come back and tell us how it went. We want to know how it went! Start your post with the emoji describing how you were feeling before you wrote your letter, and then share an emoji showing how you felt after you wrote your letter. Check out the templates here:     ... View more

  Understanding self-harm and why your teenager may be engaging in this behaviour can be really difficult to get your head around. You may feel a lot of different emotions - worry, guilt, confusion, frustration, upset and more. Unfortunately, self-harm is not uncommon in teens, and we want to provide some support for those families that are coping with it at the moment too.   Self-harm (or self-injury) is deliberately hurting your body but without suicidal intent. It can be cutting or another type of deliberate physical harm. For most young people who self-harm, it is a way to cope with painful emotions, thoughts or memories and not an attempt to end their life. The physical pain of self-harm can provide a relief from difficult emotions. You can read more about what self-harm is, why young people do it and what to look out for here.   Understanding the reasoning behind why your child may be self-harming is one thing, next is being able to help them in a supportive and caring way. This article has some great pointers on how to broach the subject with your teen and this article goes into more depth about how to support your child through their recovery. If they need professional support, have a read through here for some advice, and always call 000 if immediate care is needed.   You might find sharing your story with other parents that understand to be helpful - Nick shares his story here.  Keeping in mind our guidelines around not posting about explicit details around self-harm - we encourage you to share your experiences, advice and insights below. ... View more

With Mardi Gras currently in full swing, you and your teens may be more aware of both the celebrations of and issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ community at the moment. You might find that your teen has questions they want to ask you about LGBTQIA+ people, they might be ready to share more about their sexuality or gender with you, or even have some problematic views you want to discuss and educate them on. We want to make sure as parents we are always there to support our kids and ensure they feel understood, acknowledged and safe when talking about sexuality and gender.   We have some fantastic tips here on how to support your teen with their sexuality. From how to be approachable and create a respectful space, to the best ways to encourage them and how to deal with the feelings you may experience too.   Gender also comes into play when talking about people who identify as LGBTQIA+, so it's really important we know how to talk about and support our teens on this topic too. This article is great at explaining what gender is, how to talk to your teen about the subject and where to reach out if you need some extra support.   Please feel welcome to ask any questions you have below, or share your experiences of how you've supported your teen around LGBTQIA+ matters. ... View more