I really like to imagine. It's been a favored past time of mine since I was a little girl writing stories on my purple or green apple colored wide ruled paper, in the seventies. What if you could offer one or two pieces of advice to parents of say elementary to middle school aged kids that contained the perfect anti-drug? How cool would that be?
My choices would be:
1. Learn to love unconditionally
2. Establish clear boundaries.
What would yours be? I'm just curious what those of us who have walked this journey would say. We've all seen the anti drug campaigns. But, maybe we'd have a better shot of knowing what works. What do you think? And I look forward to your ideas.
Today I say a prayer for healing for all those who face addiction and whose loved ones have. I pray that someday we find the perfect anti drug. And. I say a prayer for the soul of Henry.
"You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
Take my hand and join us
And the world will live, will live as one"
My choices would be:
1. Learn to love unconditionally
2. Establish clear boundaries.
What would yours be? I'm just curious what those of us who have walked this journey would say. We've all seen the anti drug campaigns. But, maybe we'd have a better shot of knowing what works. What do you think? And I look forward to your ideas.
Today I say a prayer for healing for all those who face addiction and whose loved ones have. I pray that someday we find the perfect anti drug. And. I say a prayer for the soul of Henry.
"You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
Take my hand and join us
And the world will live, will live as one"
4 comments:
Learn to talk about drugs and addiction. Studies have show parents would rather talk about sex than drugs.
Just because you talk doesn't mean you will be successful but what good parent would send their child out to the world "unarmed".
Don't be afraid to be the bad guy. Allow your kids to use you as the scapegoat. Don't be afraid to kick them in the ass if they need it.
It really is parents and kids locked in a battle and at war with the users and dealers.
Educate, educate and then educate some more, your child and yourself.
You are your child's best resource, do not abdicate that responsibility.
Just my quick $.02
I like your ideas. But, truthfully, I doubt that anything I may have said would made a difference to my son. He is/was hard core, was headed for severe addiction in pre school. It's hard to explain, but it was problem after problem with him (resisting authority, impulsiveness, insomnia, inappropriate decision making, risk taking..you get the picture) since an early age.
When he was in 3rd grade, he held his breath in a contest with some other kids. He passed out, knocking out a tooth. When I went to pick him up, the principal looked at me weird and said.."most kids will stop before they pass out". I had no idea at the time what he was getting at, but he was trying to tell me my son's behavior was abnormal for that age.
Of course, education is good. Talking is good. In our case, my son has latent mental problems, and I don't anything was going to change the course of his addiction.
Don't try to 'fix' everything for your child. It's important for them to develop problem solving skills of their own, to face the consequences of their actions, and to experience uncomfortable feelings...and to know how to deal with those feelings. This helps them to develop self confidence. Be there to support, teach, guide and to listen but allow them to make things right for themselves.
Teach them that they are not entitled to 'everything'.
Teach them that you as a parent, are a person,too....not just a mom or a dad, but a person with feelings and needs of your own. (This was a big realization to me when I was about 11 years old! My mom was actually a person! Imagine that!)
Expect them to do and be the best they can do at all times.
Remember what it was like to be a kid and don't be naive about what kids are capable of.
Sorry! I obviously got carried away and wrote more than two suggestions!
Impossible question for me to answer for some reason... I don't know why.
But I wanted you to know I stopped by.
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