What are your plans for the summer? Do you want to travel, or maybe have some new experiences? Do you want to make some new friends or just get out and party a little? Whatever you may be planning for the summer, remember that any teenagers feel the same way, except that it is multiplied by ten.
The start of summer means the end of school, and in most of their minds it’s the feeling of a rush of freedom. They have a couple months to look forward to of lessened responsibilities and most likely long hours in front of the TV or their video game systems with little to no supervision.
While this may sound like fun for a while, teenagers always get bored of this unlimited freedom after a while. As a parent, you can’t afford to take this lightly. It’s simply irresponsible to shrug your shoulders and imagine that everything will be fine. This is because the facts show that summer is the most dangerous time of the year for young people when it comes to experimenting with drugs and alcohol.
It doesn’t matter where you live in the country or what your income level is. If you have teens, they are more likely to engage in riskier behaviors at this time of year than at any other. Part of the reason for this is as mentioned above: there is a severe lack of parental oversight for most young people over the summer months. Just because kids have the summer off doesn’t mean that adults do, too. As you may remember from your own childhood, for many families this will mean that teenagers get to run wild until parents come home from work.
While you’re still heading into the office each day at 8 in the morning, your teen may be sleeping till noon and then deciding to secretly head out with friends until right before you get home. You could look the other way and wait for the consequences to set in, or you could take action to make sure the summer is a safe one.
Set boundaries
Your children and teenagers need to know what is and is not okay right off the bat. You should make it very clear to them whether or not they can be picked up by friends while you’re at work. You need to know where they are going to be and who they are going to be with. When you let your kids know right away that these are the rules, they are much more likely to follow them and listen to you. After all, the majority of young people actually listen to their parents when those parents make rules. It’s only the minority of teens that get drunk and use drugs.
Education is key
Whole generations have been badly taught about the true nature of drugs. Campaigns like the ubiquitous “Just say no” slogan don’t actually do much to help. When you try to put a blanket “stop” order on all drugs, teens naturally start to wonder why they are supposed to say no. If a friend tells your child that parents are simply trying to kill all the fun, there’s a chance that your teen might believe him.
Instead of this approach, be honest with your children. Talk to them about what exactly each of the major types of drugs does to the human body. If you don’t already know, it is easy to get yourself educated with Internet resources. Once you know about all the gruesome ways that drugs can harm the body and mind, you can then pass on that information to your teen so that she can start to make her own informed decisions.
