A child who knows they can call you needs to believe that most on the day they are afraid to.

Assurances given in calm weather are cheap and easy to say. The test comes on the day the news is bad, the mistake is theirs, and calling means admitting something. What decides whether they call is not the promise but everything they have watched you do with smaller disclosures over the years.

Pay attention to how you respond to the minor confessions, the broken thing, the late arrival, the poor mark. Keep the reaction small and the help immediate, and say plainly that the door holds even for the hardest version.