Tips for effective conversations with the kids in your care:

Love and Listen: Check your heart before engaging in conversation. If you're angry, give yourself time to cool off. Make sure you're coming from a place of love and respect for your child. Remembering to be "quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" will be sure to set you up for successful interactions!

Openness vs. Snooping: When it comes to your child's privacy, give them an honest heads up about what to expect. It's perfectly acceptable to tell them up front that you have the right to request an electronic device to scroll through texts, social media, etc. at any time. If trust is repeatedly broken, or if your child has a track record of dishonesty there may eventually be a time for covert operations/room and device searching, but until then try openness vs. snooping.

Set Guidelines for Trust: Have a sit-down with your child to lay down expectations and guidelines for acceptable behavior inside and outside your home if you haven't already. Let them know that it takes just one lie to break trust, but a long time to rebuild it afterwords. Keep this conversation going! If trust is broken, remind them that everyone makes mistakes, and there is still hope for restoration of trust over time.