Tackling teenagers’ drinking habits

Teenage is that phase in a person’s life when he/she is neither a child nor an adult. This is a developing period, when a child develops both mentally and physically and moves towards becoming an adult. As they undergo a major change in the way they think and act, this age brings in all the confusion of what is right and what is wrong. They undergo a lot of peer pressure and follow what is considered ‘cool’. Here starts their experimentations and trials. They try doing what they think adults do. This includes smoking and drinking. The real problem comes when they don’t draw a line and end up drinking like a fish.

Parents play a very crucial role in how they shape up their child’s thinking. Since the beginning if the parents don’t pay enough attention to their child, he/she could end up becoming an alcoholic. It is important for parents to discuss the harmful effects of drinking. It’s also very important to let them know that why drinking is not ‘cool’ and what the other teenagers are doing totally unjustified.

Topics such as these have to be discussed from a young age. Parents need to make their child understand what is morally and ethically correct and what’s not. You cannot just force your opinion. There has to be a valid reason why the parents feel so. Giving examples validates your opinion and lets the child also believe the same.

If you are not sure what to say where such a matter is concerned, then you must tell them that these things must be left for later years. The minimum threshold of deciding whether drinking occasionally is fair or not must be left to the time when he/she starts working. All their childhood and teenage must go off with the firm belief that drinking is unhealthy. Now how effectively parents communicate this depends on them.

Another thing that must be kept in mind is that if any of the parents themselves drink occasionally, they must never do it in front of the child otherwise all the teachings will go waste. The child will see you drinking and feel if the parent can so can I.

Always remember, making your child understand the harmful effects of drinking must be handled tactfully so that your child learns from what you teach him/her and remembers it throughout his/her teenage.