Do you ever wish you had done some things differently as a parent? Or if you don’t have children, do you wish that your parents had been different in some ways when you were growing up? We have to get a license to drive a car, get certified to be a teacher, and pass the bar exam to be a lawyer. I think about that sometimes and wonder why we don’t have any required training for parenting. If we could work in reverse somehow and start parenting after we learn how to do it instead of learning as we go along, we might do a better job!

I often wish I could have known what I know now when I was a young parent. I can’t go back in time, but what I can do is share what I have learned with young parents today.

I write a lot about mental illness and how to prevent suicide. I came across this article about teaching kids to be mentally strong, and it fits right in with upstream suicide prevention. If you can teach your kids how to be mentally strong, they’ll learn coping and problem-solving skills that will help them survive as adults.

Please take a couple of minutes to read this article; A psychotherapist says the most mentally strong kids always do these 7 things—and how parents can teach them. You might learn a thing or two! I did.

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What K-12 School Leaders Need to Know About Suicide Prevention

Read A Culture of Caring; A Suicide Prevention Guide for Schools (K-12)

A Culture of Caring: A Suicide Prevention Guide for Schools (K-12) was created as a resource for educators who want to know how to get started and what steps to take to create a suicide prevention plan that will work for their schools and districts. It is written from my perspective as a school principal and survivor of suicide loss, not an expert in psychology or counseling. I hope that any teacher, school counselor, psychologist, principal, or district administrator can pick up this book, flip to a chapter, and easily find helpful answers to the questions they are likely to have about what schools can do to prevent suicide.