We’re focusing the next few weeks of Pardon the Mess on brave conversations we need to have with our kids.    This week we have licensed counselor Sissy Goff with us straight from Nashville. We’re chatting about anxiety in our kids and some of the hard emotions they are facing after this last year.    Sissy and I cover these topics around anxiety and mental health: Questions to ask your kids to gauge their anxiety level, strategies to implement when dealing with anxiety, eating disorders and other mental health issues increasing in teens, and common parenting mistakes in dealing with anxiety.   I especially loved Sissy’s explanation of anger being a secondary emotion that often stems from issues of fear and anxiety.    It’s a good reminder that what meets the eye is not always a true representation of what’s going on inside of our kids.    As we think through anxiety in our children this week, I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Sissy’s new book, Brave: A Teen Girl’s Guide to Beating Worry and Anxiety:    “All the girls I’ve ever met who are anxious have a few things in common: they’re bright and conscientious, they care and feel deeply, and they try hard. Those very gifts are sometimes the things that make us more anxious. Worry’s voice does not have the power to define you. That job belongs to you and the God who loves and delights in you.”    What a great reminder of why we must have brave conversations with our kids around this topic.