Homepage
-- Programs and Services -- Contact Information
You can make a difference keeping children safe from alcohol and other drugs
By Catherine A. Doherty
As families enjoy summer holidays and vacations, there is one aspect which is often sadly neglected. According to Joseph Califano, CEO of Columbia University’s Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, America has an epidemic of underage drinking that germinates with children ages nine to 13 in elementary and middle schools and erupts on college campuses, where 44% of all students binge drink. The CASA report, “Teen Tipplers: America’s Underage Drinking Epidemic,” published in 2004, found that 66% of all 13-year-olds stated it “was easy for them to get and use alcohol” in their own homes, or in family members’ homes, or in friends’ homes.
While underage drinking and alcohol addiction produce catastrophic affects on young lives and the lives of their families, too often family members seem unaware or ambivalent about children’s easy access to alcohol. However, family members, in particular grandparents and parents, are overwhelmingly the experts’ first choice in developing successful strategies to keep children alcohol- free. Having ambivalent or incorrect thinking on the subject can often lead to disastrous results. The following are attitudes that most families innocently project, and these serve as deterrents to sober behavior on the part of their children:
1. Its only alcohol — it’s not that big a deal.
2. I can’t do anything about it anyway.
3. It won’t happen to my kids — they are “good kids.”
4. Everyone is doing it — all the kids, all the families, all the friends.
5. Love and harmony at any price.
6. My kids don’t listen to me anyhow.
7. I don’t have time for that stuff.
8. I give up.
9. The schools should and are doing that kind of work.
10. That is not my job.
Many grandparents and parents are happy to discover that there are effective, free, and consistent ways to change the attitudes towards alcohol and other drug usage in their grandchildren. They include the following:
1. Talk to children about the use and abuse of alcohol, tobacco and all other drugs.
2. Set rules and expectations and enforce consistent consequences.
3. Eat dinner together.
4. Monitor TV, Internet usage and CD purchases.
5. Know the children’s’ friends and where they live — establish relationships with children’s friends’ parents or guardians
6. Send clear, consistent messages about alcohol use.
7. Discuss negative consequences of drinking.
8. Give children a perspective on media messages.
9. Do not accept underage drinking as a rite of passage.
10. Set the example! Teens don’t always listen, but they always watch!
The suggestions listed above can be part of a “family contract” that grandparents and parents can make with children. This lays the groundwork for dealing with the inevitable issues that surface with kids as they approach middle school and experience the pressure to use alcohol. Establishing expectations, laying down consequences, and addressing the issue are effective tools grandparents and parents can use and incorporate into everyday family life.
Extensive research has shown that having dinner with children as a family is the most effective way to prevent usage of alcohol or other drugs. Grandparents and parents should remember that over 60% of teens report that having conversations with their family members about drinking made them less likely to start drinking. The worse a teen’s relationship is with her family, the earlier her initiation of alcohol will be and the greater the likelihood of addiction.
Grandparents and parents should make a resolution to have those difficult conversations with their grandchildren and make a difference in the lives of those they love. Grandparents and parents have been found to be extremely influential in establishing the fundamental values in their grandchildren’s lives, and helping them form their identities and aspirations. Talk to your grandchildren about the dangers of alcohol and other drugs; then make them dinner. It works!
Catherine A Doherty, M.Ed., Planner and Senior Community Service Employment Program Supervisor for Elder Services is also a Credentialed Prevention Professional (C.C.P.) with the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services.