Despite the fact that alcohol and other drugs are readily available to teenagers, parents do have the power to raise drug free kids. We want Parent Power to address the questions, concerns and real life situations you parents and your teens face everyday.
Women Under the Influence, a book written by CASA, finds that high school girls drink, smoke and use illegal drugs as much as their male classmates and misuse controlled prescription drugs such as painkillers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives more than their classmates.
We have three boys and one girl. We have always talked to all of them very openly about substance abuse. Our daughter has not been treated differently in those discussions. Sometimes we talk with them one on one and sometimes as a group in a family setting.
Yes, the message is basically the same; however there are different issues that the two sexes can be faced with. On one hand peer pressure is a great possibilty they both can be confronted by. With the female she can sadly have to deal with it coming from both sides. Her girlfriends are important to her and also the admiring youngmen play a vital factor in her decision making process. So it is important to emphasise to both girls and boys to choose their associations wisely. As a parent you must establish close communications with your children and know who their friends are; but please donot make them feel you don’t trust them and give them credit and praises for their smartness
We have both boys and girls in our family and we didn’t treat them differently or speak to them differently with regard to drugs and alcohol but there are definitely different situations and emotional maturity levels and intrapersonal relationship issues that allow for different circumstances in which the drugs and alcohol are or become available to teens especially.
We have four girls and one boy. We did talk to them altogether at times and one on one at times. In all our conversations we emphasized the facts: teenagers generally drink to get drunk. The use drugs to get high. In both cases judgement in serverly impaired. We emphasized to our girls that they are put in an extremely vulnerable position if they are drinking at parties. They become targets for sexual assualt. We always pointed out that driving under the influence or allowing someone else to drive who had been drinking put their lives at risk. He have personal family history to point to in the death of my husband’s 19 yr old brother who killed himself driving drunk.
I have a son and a daughter. I talk to them in the same manner in regards to drinking and using/selling drugs. As it would impact them in the same way, for the most part, they get the same talk.
I talked to both of them regarding my opinions about use in the same way, but knew that my son seemed to be a better candidate for experimenting with marijuana and alcohol than my daughter. Plus knew that my daughter would most likely be riding with a boy to some place where there might be partying/use so gave her options for how to get out of that situation and get to a safe place. My son I addressed more the importance of not driving with substances in the car if he gave someone a ride that had it, and not riding with someone under the influence. And I talked to my daughter more about the skills she might need to get out of a situation where she was feeling sexually pressured by a boy either who had been using something that would affect his inhibition. Because my son is older and my children are very close to each other I had them talk to each other when they had made mistakes and also to “call” each other out if they were sensing that one was doing something I would not approve of. The support system that I taught them when they were younger carried over into their high school and college years.
Well its basically the same talk for both sexes, but there are some differences.
One fact I bring up is that 85% of all unwanted pregnancies occurred while the parents were altered b drugs or alcohol.
It really changes your ability to think clearly and make good decisions. so even if you would normally say NO! you might say what the heck. The kids can see that this is real and they would be more inclined to take risks when altered.
Absolutely, no difference when it comes to drugs and/or drinking…
Pressures on girls to do unhealthy things is just as relevant as it is for boys. Girls are under different pressures in our society as they always were. Girls’ issues need different consideration. Girls really are different from boys.
Overall message is the same. However, with the girls we’ve always stressed how vulnerable they become when under any influence and say their judgement goes away.
For our son, we’ll reinforce the bad judgement message but also discuss the fact that violence often accompanies drugs and alcohol. We’ll take him to an emergency room to hear, firsthand, from a nurse, about what she sees after midnight.