to think that 7 is too young for DRUGS EDUCATION?

[noonar]

my dd is 7 and in year 3. i'm just a little surprised that she has come home today talking about cocaine, given that she is so young and we were given no notification that they were going to be learning about such a sensitive issue.

if a particular child lives in circumstances where they may be likely to be exposed to the dangers of drugs, then of course they need to be educated about them in an age appropriate way. but surely 7 is too young for the majority of children.

dd has come home very confused and full of
questions which i would have liked some time to anticipate, tbh.

AIBU to a) be cross beacuse we werent informed and b)to think she is too young.

thinking of withdrawing her from further lessons.

am open to changing my view, btw, if there is evidence that this age is optimum for drugs ed to start, but my knee jerk reaction is that it is too young.

I don't think it's too young

The way society is atm I think the more honest and matter-of-fact we are with DC the better

Alcohol ed prob more important than drugs at this age though, IMO

well - we recently had letters home from the infant school warning us about needles that have been found lying on the bank in the church grounds (which has a public path through the grounds which is used by many children everyday) - and I know there's been syrgines found in the park next to the school as well (we actually live in a decent area!)

I know that many of the children saw the needles before they were cleared up (very quickly - credit to the council for responding quickly to the phone calls they recieved).

I think YR5 or 6 is too old tbh, it's not just cigarettes some children start smoking at 10/11yrs old.......

my ds picked up a crack pipe at the park when he was 2 - now i would obviously not suggest that 2 year olds need lessons but possibly younger than 7; around the time they become eager to fit in or impress their peers (i have seen some 4 year olds who fit this category).

OP, if your 7yo came home and asked about sex because there'd been playground talk about it, you wouldn't be prepared for that either.

Pixie, I personally think that coming home with questions is a good thing. It means, for one thing, that they are leaving the classroom for the playground and forgetting the lesson. They are interested in what they learned. I say that's great!

Sorry, they are not leaving for the playground and forgetting etc...

I am a nurse, work in substance misuse atm

The dds (dd1 esp, she is 6) is naturally interested in what I do - "Do you look after sick people, Mummy?" etc etc

So I have found myself in the position of explaining things to her that perhaps ordinarily wouldn't come up in conversation yet. It's been useful, in the same way that the "How do you get a baby in your tummy?" questions have been useful

solo - or the OP could face the questions that her DS2 (6yrs old) fired at her on the way home from school yesterday

"mind you step on that condo................"

"that what mum - what's that for"

I think a lot of these posts are implying that schools need to be educating 7 year olds specifically about types of illegal drugs, but year 3 lessons generally don't focus on this and I cannot see what the benefit would be.

We have had prescribed drugs for DH in our house that could kill our children if they took them. Children of this age do not need to distinguish between heroin and prescribed morphine, cocadomal and crack, a diabetes syringe or a heroin syringe.

They do need to know:

1. You don't swallow things if you don't know what they are (applies to things like bleach, not just drugs). If you are unsure you ask a trusted adult.

1. You don't pick up tablets/syringes/powders/liquids. You tell an adult instead.

1. You don't swallow something just because your friends are doing it/telling you to, and as a class you practise strategies for making sensible decisions.

1. You don't take things just because an adult does. What may be safe for them may not be for you.

All this talk of playground dealers and class A powders is a red herring. It makes no difference if Tipsity's powder was a class A drug, crushed up paracetamol or drain cleaning crystals - any of them could have killed her if she had swallowed them.

The dangers are all around children - not that many will die from heroin but a lot will be poisoned by Grandma's medicine, overdose of fruit flavoured vitamins and minerals or a bottle of Fanta coloured cleaning fluid.

We talk to older children differently about drugs not because we are trying to keep younger ones innocent, but because younger ones simply would not understand the nuances of the information and debate that we put to the older ones.

Good post, milly

that makes sense Milly - but what about when questions about the what's and why's? As, ime, children that age will do? Or as others have mentioned a child mentions a specific drug(s)

We have had children in Y3 who smoke on a regular basis.

Agree with Milly's post, too

But don't think there is any harm in answering questions about specific drugs

Remember, 7 and 8yr olds are faced with crappy tabloid and sleb mag headlines EVERYWHERE...

'Premiership Ace: "My coke and hooker shame" etc etc

They pick things up, better to dispel the myth and fantasy around it IMO

yes, very good post MillyR

MillyR hit the nail on the head

I wish dd was being educated about drugs (of all types, legal and illegal) at school, as well as sex. She's in Y6 now, so might be I suppose, but if it had started in Y2 I would have approved.

Would have wanted notice, so I could put my own spin on it, as it were, though

Great post Milly. I think it's very important to give school children age-appropriate, ongoing information about this subject.

My 14 y.o., I discovered recently, is scarily naive about drugs, their effects on the body, and their legality, etc. I was under the impression that he was resonably well informed - his 16 y.o. brother certainly is from a combination of school, scouts, home, etc.

I found out from his book that he has some quite serious misconceptions about various things, but considering that drugs have only been discussed in science according to him, he probably hasn't been paying proper attention as he really doesn't like science. For this reason I think it would be useful if the school sent information home to parents about drugs in general/what is being taught in school, so that if we choose to (I certainly would and do) we can reinforce what they are learning. If the subject is being approached at 7, I would have no objections provided it is responsible and age-appropriate.