Family Talk About Underage Drinking – Get Up Close And Get Personal With Your Child

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Last Sunday I went out to brunch with my fifteen year old son, as well as my parents and two of my younger brothers and their other halves. It was a yummy brunch at a lovely restaurant near the water. Cocktails were available at the brunch, some people partook and some did not. Someone jokingly asked if my son wanted a drink. (Every family has a jackass or two, you know it.) My son asked if he could try one. Now I was in a funny place. See I believe in telling my child the truth and discussing things honestly. And so launched our latest discussion on underage drinking.

I started by reminding him that he has a few alcoholics in his bloodline and that I was against complete drunkenness. I continued to remind him of how ridiculous people can be when they are drunk, something he’d witnessed first hand when he’d seen a couple of family members drunk on a few occasions. I also reminded him that some people aren’t even nice drunks. He told me that his friends had drank at parties and weren’t like that. I explained that he may not have seen it and that it was also possible they just hadn’t had that one last sip that’s enough to push you over the edge. So far he’d been respectful and open. Wanting to demystify things a little, I let him take a sip of a weak mimosa (orange juice and champagne). Some might call me a bad parent for it but I don’t believe so. I’d rather him try it in front of me, demystifying it, rather than trying it with his friends and no adult supervision. No this doesn’t mean I will let him drink or that I will be serving alcohol at his party – those things aren’t happening.

I’m just trying to keep the lines of communication between us open, something that seems to get more challenging as he gets older. It is known that the way effective parent-child communication takes place depending on the child’s age. It’s of the highest importance that we communicate with our children, about everything, not just underage drinking. Good communication needs to start when a child is young, in order to build a foundation for all future communication and for you and your child to get to know each other.

Anheuser-Busch recently launched their updated Family Talk About Drinking program. The program is located on the Anheuser-Busch Family Talk About Drinking Facebook page. The site offers lots of information and tips on how to have meaningful conversations with your children about underage drinking, as well as a place for visitors to go and interact, ask questions and share ideas with other parents.

Take the time to talk to your children about peer pressure and underage drinking. They are listening. They can’t hear what we have to say if we don’t say it.

Here’s video from a virtual roundtable I was invited to participate in. I hope you’ll take a look.

I was no compensated in any way for writing this post, I just felt it needed to be shared.