A SANE LOOK AT SOME DELICATE SUBJECTS WITH YOUR TEENAGER
The teenage years are a time for experimenting with new ideas new body sensations, and new experiences. If your teenage children can depend on you to tell the truth about danger rather than to exaggerate, threaten, or mislead them, you have established a healthy atmosphere in which to thrash out the problems connected with the following activities.
Driving
Most teenagers cannot wait until they have a driver’s licence and the occasional use of the family car. From the moment they first sit behind the wheel, they should be made to understand that a car can be a lethal weapon if mishandled.
Parental example in respecting traffic laws and exercising judgement when driving is the best insurance against recklessness in the young person. If it is your considered opinion that your teenager ;s not mature enough for the responsibility of driving, you might tell him that it is out of concern for his safety as well as that of other people that he will have to wait another year or so.
Drinking
Studies of alcoholism show that children raised in households where alcoholic beverages are an accepted part of meals or of Special occasions, and where drunkenness is equated with stupidity and savagery rather than with manliness, are least likely to abuse alcohol.
You need not think that the end of the world has come if your son reels home after his first beer binge, or if your teenage daughter announces that she drank a glass of wine with her spaghetti dinner at a friend’s house. A more serious problem is the adolescent who rebels against family rigidity by drinking in secret and glorying in his sinfulness.
Dangers of smoking
There is no way around the fact that the children of parents who smoke are more likely to smoke themselves than the children of parents who do not smoke. What good are health warnings and hygiene instruction to a teenager who is confronted day in and day out with a parent who smokes two packets of cigarettes a day?
If neither parent smokes and the youngster begins the habit on his own, you might suggest that it is neither sophisticated nor grown-up, but rather related to thumb-sucking.
Drug abuse
Any parent who suspects that his youngster is on the brink of serious trouble with drugs should neither reject nor protect him, but rather insist that the reality of the situation be faced and guidance sought from a qualified expert—a social worker, a psychiatrist, or the family doctor.
If you think the drug problem is a serious one in your community, try to group together with the other parents and ask an adult leader respected by teenagers—a science teacher, a doctor, or a local athlete—to lead open discussion on the subject.
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