We have and always will be honest with our son. We use to tell him we took medication for our "brain boo-boo", but as he got older he said that made him feel like a baby. We started to call it mental illness and he started to ask questions about what kind, if it's contagious, and that he has it too. We reassured him that he does not but may in the future, so we need to know about anything when he feels mad or sad so we can help him deal with that. I try to remind myself that I only have 18 yrs to screw up he has 60 to fix it. He's also in therapy to help him process things we screw up.

I don't know if your kids are old enough to write cards but keeping a mother's day card that they pick out and write something really helps remind me how my son feels about me on bad days.