“It’s just a beer.” Is that the message that our kids receive. Look at these statistics.
* On an average day 8000 adolescents 12-17 drank alcohol for the first time.
* The primary source that supplies adolescents with alcohol is their parents. Whether they know it or not.
* Of those who took their first drink before age 14, half become dependent at some point.
* 18% of 8th graders admit to being drunk at least once.
* 34% of 9th graders report that they have consumed alcohol before they were 13 years old.
My commentary on the above statistics:
* Thinking that your kids are too young to know and learn about alcohol is a gamble not worth the risk.
* The primary influence in a child’s life is their parents. What they see you do weighs more heavily upon their perceptions than what you say. For example, if you tell your child not to drink alcohol, but they see you do it – the message they learn is that alcohol is o.k.
* 1 out of 6 people have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. For these people, one drink, just one drink, may be all that it takes to start them down the road of a lifetime of addiction. You cannot know if your children have that predisposition.
Don’t be a stumbling block.
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