Parents: What Can You Do?
Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and even friends have a role to play in protecting youths from drug misuse—whether it’s alcohol, tobacco, legal or illegal highs. In today’s world, you can’t perpetually prevent your child from having access to dangerous drugs. You must help him develop into someone who will choose not to do wrong things, even though he can. Some thoughts to consider:
Educate
Don’t let your child be ignorant. Teach him how dangerous these different types of drugs are and what can happen if he takes them. According to the Angelus Foundation, only a third of 16-to-24-year-olds say they’re at least “fairly well informed” about illegal highs. Don’t run the risk of your son being one of those who thinks that “legal” drugs are safe. Your son needs to be very well informed.
Live right
Make sure that your example is “squeaky clean.” Your children are learning from everything they see you do. If you need alcohol to have a good time, that’s sending a message to your daughter. She needs you to be an awesome example of balance and control.
Expect obedience
Parents who really love their children want to save them from abusing their own minds. Whether it’s fashionable or not, they expect obedience—not out of convenience, but out of love. Yes, this means discipline and even confrontation at times when your son breaks a “small” rule. But if you teach him to be obedient then, it may be that very lesson that gives him the strength to walk away when a friend offers him Annihilation.
Spend time
Enjoy wholesome, uplifting pursuits with your child. Develop a close relationship with each of your children as early as possible. Go beyond stressing the negative (don’t do this or that; stay away from drugs), and emphasize the positive, exciting, enjoyable things you can do together: sports, music, academics, crafts and trades.
Plant ambition
Young people who abuse drugs and alcohol are living for the moment. They have little hope for their future. But if your son is focused on what he can accomplish, he won’t want to risk losing such a bright future to dangerous drugs. Help your child set goals and be ambitious about what he can accomplish as he grows up—he may amaze even you!
Stay involved
Your daughter needs guidance. Help her choose her friends thoughtfully—and what she does with those friends. Ask her how her day at school went. Know how her test scores are coming. Talk about her social life with her, even if it’s hard to get her to open up at first. Negative peer pressure, drug parties and clubbing are going to be available—you must fight for your child by staying involved in her life and steering her toward a better future.
Teach spiritually
If you follow all these guidelines, you’ll already be showing your children the spirit of give—by your example. Teach them to also focus on serving other people. If they learn God’s way of give, and if they have a relationship with Him, their futures will be drug-proof!
You don’t have to remember all seven points all the time. Just remember the one word that sums it all up: love. A young person taking drugs is often a cry for attention. If your children see that you love them and that you will even make sacrifices to help them, they will turn to you—and away from dangerous drugs.
