Do not confuse this with treatment or mental health advice or direction.

Nothing on this podcast is made to supplement or supersede the relationship and direction of your mental health caretakers.

Although David Kozlowski is a licensed marriage and family therapist,

he is not functioning as a certified mental health professional in this environment,

but same applies to any professionals who may appear on the Light the Fight podcast.

Hey, everybody out there in the podcast universe.

This is David from Light the Fight.

Thanks for joining us for another episode.

Today I'm just riding solo without my co-host, Heidi.

And I'm just going to share a few thoughts with you about some things that you guys can do as parents

and why you should do it as parents to help you fortify a stronger connection with your

teenagers that then you could bring that connection to some tough conversations because

let's face it guys there's tough conversations with your kids in the future i I'm not a mind reader, but if I was a

mind reader or fortune teller, I would predict difficult conversations with your children in the

future, not just little children, teenagers, and even adult children too. So I call this one

full-time parent, part-time friend. So most of you out there are so busy,

not just with work, but worrying about all the things you need to do to make sure your kids have

a mentally, emotionally, physically successful, happy life that the stress of those things can kind of bog you down and get to the point

where you may not always be patient. You may not always think about the things that you need to do

to fortify the relationship with your child so that when things do pop off and they do get intense

and serious, you already have that deeper connection

with them. So with full-time parent, part-time friend, that's just a way that I tell people

...