In this episode I talk to Luke Grim, one half of the dad duo who run website/newsletter These 16 Things. Luke told me about the fathers' belief that kids need to be taught life skills by their parents - some that most parents don't feel equipped to teach. Their newsletter aims to walk parents through the process of having those important conversations with their kids, to teach them to think on their own and to hold their ground when culture says they should do something that goes against their morals. Who is Luke Grim? Luke is 43 years old, married with 8 kids. He and his wife homeschool them all, and they range from 16 months old to 13 years old. He grew up with a single military dad, who did the best he could. However, Luke says he got into vandalising, ran from the cops a few times at 2am, messed up at school, and got into shoplifting. He says the shoplifting began because he couldn't work out how to fit in with the crowd at school. The purpose of These 16 Things is to give some confidence and tools for parents to intentionally sit down with their teens and prepare them for hard topics and teach real skills. Too often, parents have HUGE amounts of experiences from good/bad lessons learned, yet tend to only pass these on to kids when something "happens", instead of being intentional. Have a listen! More teenage parenting from Helen Wills: Helen wills is a teen mental health podcaster and blogger at Actually Mummy, a resource for midlife parents of teens. Thank you for listening! Subscribe to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear new episodes. If you have a suggestion for the podcast please email [email protected]. There are already stories from fabulous guests about difficult things that happened to them as teenagers - including losing a parent, becoming a young carer, and being hospitalised with mental health problems - and how they overcame things to move on with their lives. You can find more from Helen Wills on parenting teenagers on Instagram and Twitter @iamhelenwills. For information on your data privacy please visit Podcast.co. Please note that Helen Wills is not a medical expert, and nothing in the podcast should be taken as medical advice. If you're worried about yourself or a teenager, please seek support from a medical professional. Podcast produced by James Ede at Be Heard production.