- After he eats, he sort of opens up. It's like, food first. Feed me first, and then, he talks. 
- Sometimes we play the nothing game. What's wrong? Nothing. What's wrong? Nothing. - Could go on for two hours. When clearly, there's something wrong. 
- If they're closing down emotionally in the conversation, to then, not push too hard. 
- You have to leave him be. We'll say, "look, we know there's something wrong, we can't play the nothing game forever, so when you're ready to talk, just come and talk to us." 
- If I can see that somethings going on and I've asked the question, obviously. Are you okay? Is there anything you want to talk about? And I get the mm-mm grunt. 
- Is everything okay with your sister? And, if she says yes. I'll say, "well, are you sure? Go and find out. I'm a bit worried. Don't tell her I'm asking." 
- Any person if you say to them, "Come and sit down, we need to talk." Then you automatically, you've kind of shut it down. The person that you're talking to thinks they're in trouble. 
- Start the conversation in relation to some peripheral space around that issue. And, ask them lower level questions, just to start some conversation. 
- Sometimes I just walk up and just give him a cuddle. And, just say 'you know I'm here. If you want to talk to me, I'm here.' 
- If they're not gonna talk to you face to face, well, what are you gonna do? You've gotta try something. Well, get on their level, start messaging. 
- You kind of have to, sometimes, plan times where you will be able to talk to the child that needs it. In a quiet, undistracting place because they are less likely to chat to you if there's a lot going on. 
- I find that I have most success when I'm driving with one of my kids. 
- Do you want to go for a drive? And then, we sit in the car. And then, it becomes more, I guess, casual conversation and, he's much more likely to talk to me then. 
- When you don't have to have the eye contact, when you don't, you can just have that eyes straight ahead conversation. In the confines of your car, when there's no one else there to hear. 
- The dinner table is often a good place for us to start exploring some of those conversations that we have with our kids. 
- Just listen to them and let them say everything they need to say. 
- Asking them how they feel about things is a good way of sort of being able to engage them in that process. 
- You need to make sure they're aware that you're available. 
- He shares his music. I love music. I love reading books and a whole bunch of other things that I sort of managed to emphasising his life. So, we have a lot of common things that we can discuss.