Tonight with your 13 to 17 year old
The prompt
“Can you think of a moment of pure relief you remember really clearly?”
What to listen for
A vivid memory here often reveals what kind of pressure they'd been quietly carrying beforehand, relief only feels that strong when something real was weighing on them. Listen for the shape of the worry underneath the relief itself.
If the story involves you or home in some way, notice whether it was relief from something you did or something you helped resolve, both are useful and neither needs a big reaction.
If nothing comes to mind, that's fine, not every teen tracks their emotional highlights that way, and a shrug here isn't a red flag.
What this tells you
The relief they describe shows you what kind of pressure has weighed on them before, and how they experience being let out from under it.