Teen alcohol and drug use is a real issue that needs to be faced. But if we look around at how parents have been addressing drugs and alochol with their teenagers, we can clearly see it’s just not working.
Dear parents, I would like to use this space to send you a message from my heart. I know how hard it must be to hear or see that your teen is interested in using drugs or alcohol. And as much as we would like to hold this conversation off until they are older (or for many parents never have the conversation at all), you would just be doing yourself and your teenager a disservice by doing so. It’s time to get real with your teen and really discuss the issue at hand. Not just say “it’s bad” or “don’t do that”. Your teen is a lot more smarter then you think and they need to be spoken to in a much more forward, open, and honest way. Just because you educate your teen on these potential choices, does not make you an advocate. You can tell your teen that its not a healthy choice for them but that if they are going to try these things, here are some facts. Let them know that you don’t prefer for them to do these things but that if they do you will not freak out or judge them. So many parents wonder why their teen does not want to speak with them or hides things from them but then when something like this comes up parents yell at their kids and ground them forever. So of course your teen will hide these things from you. Drugs and alcohol are a real choice that all of us can choose at any point in our lives. Rather then hide or run from it, lets get real and put the elephant on the table so you can look at it objectively. The first benefit of doing this is that you will earn more trust and respect from your teen because they will see you are treating them as an adult. Second, you can properly educate your teenager about the ill effects of making this choice and they will at least be armed with more information so that when the issue comes up they can hopefully make a better choice.
Once again, this is not by any means saying that you are telling your teen to do whatever they want. Far from it. You are just acknowledging that this is something they will need to face at some point in their life and that the sooner you get real with your teen about alcohol and drugs, the sooner they can make healthier choices about them.