Building a good relationship with your child should start when your child is young. If you haven't started quite yet, it's never too late, but my advice is as soon as your child can talk, start talking to your child. The best thing a parent can do is get all technology devices out of the room when you're talking to your kid. Because if your phone is there and you're texting and you're e-mailing what you're saying to your child is that there are other people that are as important as you are if not more important than you are. So remove all the devices and talk to your kid eye to eye, face to face. Of course if it's a sensitive issue, I think you should be looking straight ahead not looking at your kid in the eye because it's more comfortable for your child. But generally your goal is to say to your kid, " You're important to me" and that starts when they're young. When they become tweens, and certainly when they're teens, you become less important as a sounding board. You're still their number one go to person who's there by default, but you're not the first person they're going to go to anymore. That's okay. If the foundation is strong and they know they can trust you and that you'll be there to hear them, then they'll keep coming back when times get hard. And I think ultimately, that's what's difficult for parents is that as their kids get older, they're not sharing in the fun stuff as much, they're sharing in the hard stuff, but that's okay. That's the storm that you weather that is adolescence. Keep that foundation strong. Put away that cell phone, get off the telephone, focus on your kid when they need you and it will pay back in spades.