What do Parents Know?

Join me as I talk to Henry Dingle, parent coach and teenage expert, about how parents can build positive relationships with their teenagers based on trust and understanding. We discuss a number of issues such as setting boundaries, providing rewards and consequences and ensuring rules are created by both parent and child. 

Holly Sutcliffe joins me and talks candidly about her own struggles as an undiagnosed autistic teenager. We discuss how and why she saw the world differently and how far we have come, as a society, in recognising autism and understanding it. Holly talks about the signs parents can look out for and what they can do in reaching a diagnosis and supporting their teenager. 

Well known parenting expert, Elizabeth O'Shea joins me to discuss anger management and how parents can deal with teenagers that have anger issues. In the episode, we discuss what anger management means and we go through various techniques that parents can use to manage angry situations, to de-escalate when angry situations do arise and to avoid angry situations in the first place. 

Jude Beveridge and I discuss the issue of anxiety and how so many teenagers are affected by it. We discuss the signs and symptoms of anxiety and what parents can do when they spot these signs. We also go through the issue of body image and how so many teenagers have issues with the way they look, much of it based on social media influencers. 

Join me as I talk to Ben Akers about what being a  dad means to him. He discusses the absence of his own father and how this impacted him as a teenager and also shaped the father he is today. Ben talks openly about mental health and its importance in being a good dad and why men need to do a lot more so their children can have positive childhoods. 

Louise Sullivan shares her views on what the problem child means. We discuss the issues faced by parents and schools when teenagers behave badly and whether this behaviour can be linked to wider issues, such as SEMH. We also discuss the signs of a potential problem child and what parents can do to improve the situation. 

Jeremy Indika talks about his own experience as a victim of sexual abuse as a young child and how his own parents never thought something so horrific could happen in their own. We discuss how it happened and what Jeremy did when he realised it was wrong. We also discuss why so many parents ignore discussions around sex, but how modern access to pornography means that these difficult conversations are needed. 

Young people can be the victims of CCE, Child Criminal Exploitation. This is when they are lured into the world of crime by adults, mainly online via social media platforms. Parents need to know the signs to look out for that might suggest their child is being exploited. Join me as I talk to Hallam Walker-Smart, himself a victim of CCE, as he discusses his own experience and all the work he now does to safeguard young people against what he went through. 

Join me as I talk to Colette Mullings from Beat, the UK's largest eating disorder charity, and anorexia survivor, Dave Chawney. We talk about about how eating disorders can develop in teenagers and the link between eating disorders and mental health. We also discuss the support available from Beat and the signs that parents can look out for that might suggest an eating disorder in their teenager. 

In the first episode of season 2, Tara Ward joins me as we discuss youth knife crime and violence. Tara talks openly about losing her partner to knife crime and about the work she does now to keep knives out of the hands of young people. We discuss the impact that social media and song lyrics have on young people, where the latter can glorify crime and violence, and we discuss the signs parents can look out for that might suggest teenage involvement in crime.