Every year on the second Thursday of September, Australians are encouraged to stop and ask the people around them a simple question: are you okay? In 2026, R U OK? Day falls on Thursday 10 September. Most of the attention goes to workplaces and friendship groups, but the conversation that often matters most happens at home, with the child or teenager sitting across the kitchen table. Many of the parents we meet describe the same quiet feeling. Something about their child seems different. They...

Every parent has experienced it: a meltdown in the supermarket, a screaming match over homework, tears that seem completely out of proportion to what just happened. Big emotions are a normal part of childhood, but when they are frequent, intense, or significantly disrupting family life, parents often wonder whether something more is going on and how best to help. Emotional regulation, which is the ability to recognise, understand, and manage one’s own emotional responses, is one of the most...

The teenage years are a period of significant change, neurologically, socially, and emotionally. Adolescents are navigating new pressures, forming their identities, and developing the capacity for adult thinking, all while managing the physical and emotional turbulence of puberty. For many young people, this period is genuinely challenging, and for some, it can be a time when mental health difficulties first emerge. As a parent, it can be difficult to know what is normal teenage behaviour,...