As parents, the first step in talking to our kids about underage drinking doesn’t involve our kids at all. Instead, it’s about sitting down with our parenting partner and asking ourselves some tough questions:
What do we really think about alcohol and underage drinking?
What rules do we want to communicate?
Are we prepared to back up our advice with our own actions?
When it comes to conversations with our kids, what are we really trying to achieve?
Are we trying to protect our kids from the world, or are we trying to give them the skills they need to make smart decisions?
Before we can take the next step, we have to be honest with ourselves.
“We must get over the old way of thinking that in order to make children do better, we must make them feel bad. Just like adults, children who feel encouraged, want to do better.”
Dr. Elliott Barker, Forensic Psychiatrist and advocate of the Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Click for the next step: A New Way Forward |