Keep your kids substance free

I did not want to post this to my blog before the holiday, but after careful reflection I decided to do so now.  When I write about the underage drinking in Barrington RI it is not with malice, it is will genuine concern.  As the mother of 4 now young adults ages 20-32 I have been through this personally.  I wish to share my knowledge and prevention tips with others.  My goal is to elevate awareness and encourage dialogue.  We live in a town with a very high level of underage substance use as is true in many other affluent towns.  When you speak out against substance use you are met with the loud push back voices of those who enable the behavior.  Teaching your children to "drink responsibly" is not possible.  Children emulate what they see, they cannot discern what responsibly is, they simply categorize it as "how to socialize" and imitate the behavior-many times with devastating results. As a community we need to approach underage substance use with the same energy as smoking.  The effects of underage drinking lead to long term adult addiction which affects not only the user but everyone around them.  It is not cool to drink.  It is not necessary to incorporate alcohol into every social event you run or attend.  Our children look up to us.  As parents, teachers, coaches and adults in the community we have a responsibility to lead by example.  I recently had a client, who was a mom herself- tell me about her younger sister who is in college-an RA-who drinks but doesn't drive when she drinks-making that ok?  When I brought up the fact that it is not the drinking and driving, it is the underage drinking which may lead to an adult addiction or so many other issues-date rape, unwanted pregnancy, death by aspiration on your own vomit, falling and head injury.  She replied that she was not going to come down hard on her underage sister because she did worse than that in college.  Sad really.  This young girl has an older sister and apparently a mom that enables this dangerous behavior. 
Last month a friend of my daughters boyfriend was out drinking with friends.  He has been drinking for years, friends and family have spoken with him, and he was the father of a 2 year old.  In any case he went out with friends, drank excessively, was driven to a friends house to sleep it off on their couch.  In the morning they found him dead, aspirated on his own vomit. 
As adults and leaders in the community we need to stop perpetuating the "idea" that drinking is cool.  With all of the knowledge we have it is criminal to stand by and watch this deadly behavior continue. 
The recent 18 year old who was involved in the serious accident on Kent Street in Barrington RI used to attend summer art at my studio.  It is a small town, we all see who children are hanging out with, how parents are parenting, and it is not hard to see the writing on the wall.  It is all so preventable.  It starts at home.  It starts with parents being parents.
http://barrington.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/woman-18-charged-with-dui-after-earlymorning-cr...