All of us want the best for our children, but as they get older and they strive to be more independent (and we try to prise them away from their phones or iPads) it can get more difficult. You soon realise (if you haven’t already) that it is not about telling them what to do, or doing it for them, it is about helping them find ways to help themselves.

You have the ability to make a difference to your child’s future
However, teenagers need support on their own terms – we have to learn ourselves as parents or carers to be open to their ideas and how they want us to help them (hard as this may be).

Your teenager was probably five years old when you first asked them what they want to be when they grow up. But the conversation really needs to move up a gear once they hit high school. And it’s not always the easiest conversation to have.

Look for an opportunity to open up a discussion about what they want to do. But remember, what you want for your children may be quite different from their own, newly independent ideas (that’s if they have any ideas at all).

Get involved
Try to be involved in your child’s education, know what your teen enjoys, what they don’t, and why. Use this knowledge to start researching courses that you think they might enjoy and then look for the opportunity to start an open-minded conversation with them.

The difficult thing will be to remember that communication is a two-way street – it’s not just about talking (dictating) but listening and appreciating what your teenager is thinking and feeling.

Focus on understanding their point of view rather than on providing them with answers. The idea is not to come to a conclusion about their future after one conversation but to encourage a conversation that will evolve over time.

Did you know that the teenage brain is different form a child’s brain and it is different from an adult brain? It is a brain that is changing a lot. At around age ten or eleven years the brain produces an extra 20 billion or so brain cells. Then, at around thirteen or fourteen years, another 20 billion brain cells are ‘cut back’. All this makes life confusing for a teenager. They may, when the ‘cutting back’ is going on, suddenly find they can’t do things they could before, so teenagers can feel confused. Try not to get frustrated if they talk in circles or never seem to come to a conclusion – this is part of the process.

Show your enthusiasm, build a sense of excitement and optimism about their future. Help your teen work towards a future that is meaningful to them. Think about career paths or course options not necessarily based on the subject matter but for the skills it can teach your child.

If your teen is really passionate about something, discuss whether this could be a potential career path - passions no longer have to be the hobbies that you do in your spare time; it is possible to turn your passions into careers if you learn the right skills.

Many of us work in jobs today that didn’t exist ten years ago. Blogging didn’t exist when I was a school – and now people do make a career out of it!

None of us really know what careers are going to be available to your teen in the future, so listen to what excites them and help them explore the possibilities – you never know one of their passions could carve out a career for them that they will really love.

There are courses available that could help your teen turn their passion into a successful business. A business or management course, for example, could teach skills such as how to start a successful online business, identify marketing opportunities, and how to manage risk.

At the end of the day, we all want our children to lead happy, healthy, successful lives. We want to protect them and their future and so that we give them the best start in life that we can.

That’s why if you are a parent and you don’t have life insurance this could also be something that you’ll need to think about. Nobody likes to think about a future without their loved ones, but just as it makes sense to help your child be prepared for their future careers, it can also be important to protect your family financially should the worst happen.

Being prepared and making a plan in either situation won’t make the circumstances any less challenging, but it could make a difference.

Both tasks will give you peace of mind that your child’s future is protected – although taking out life insurance is probably the simpler of the two things to do.

At Essential Insurance we provide no nonsense advice and life insurance policies to suit your family’s needs. We’ll search and compare policies from UK leading insurers and you’ll get your own experienced advisor to help you get the cover you need at the right price for your budget. Contact us on 0800 612 8005 or click here and we’ll call you.