What will/would you do if/when you catch your child drinking?

[mamadadawahwah]

Lets face it, they all do it. From 10/11/12 up. They drink, they smoke (and not just tobacco). I dread it, i really dread it. Is it possible to instill in your kids that drinking isnt what its cracked up to be? Is it down to peer pressure, bad friends, what?

I dont know if i was a nerd, but i never had a drink throughout my school years and never smoked till late in life. How do keep your kids away from drink?

Yes mamadadaetc . . . it's pretty inevitable I guess all you can hope is that you've instilled sensible ideals and acted in a way that you would want them to behave IYSWIM. I too am dreading the peer pressure now that ds1 has started 2ndry school but so far he seems fine. He hates people smoking and as far as I can tell is not in a hurry to try drinking either. I drink very little and dh doesn't drink at all.

No we dont drink either. Neither did my parents. But you know what they are like, they wanna try something just to piss mommy and daddy off. Its way too scary, its years ahead for me, but I know one fine day it will be in my face, waiting to be "dealt" with. Yech.

dh has offer dd and ds a taste of his beer whenever he opens one at home (not very often admittedly) dd has tasted some but now refuses and ds just refuses. Also I offer a very dilute glass of wine if we have one. Neither accept but know that it is available under supervision if they fancy a taste.

As for smoking, once we've dropped dd at school in the morning on our route back to ds's school we pass the usual group of boys smoking down one of the side roads so we made up a song about it which we sing at the top of our voices int he car and ds has been known to nearly wet his pants. Has to be sung with a really brummy accent though for maximum effect. It starts off:

Im a bloke and I smoke and me lungs are all brown
I smell and I stink and me face isnt pink
and then we go on to sing stuff about being 'ard and i think we occasionally add in stuff about drinking and a knackered liver too. Always finish teh song off "but dont tell my mummy" which reinforces the fact that in front of their mates they think they're cool and big but scared of getting into the shit with parents.

Jam, arent you afraid those boys will beat your kids up? or you? or do you do it only in the confines of your car. Good plan though, i will have to remember that idea.

good god - we only do it in the confines of our car im not that stupid. Its just something we started because (a) ds thought it was fun and (b) i think it teaches a lesson without lecturing.

Ds is now also very interested in watching "how safe are you?" on SkyOne and is worried because there are loads of bacteria around the keyboard

Dunno what i'd do.

My dad let me drink myself stupid at a party when i was 15, and i was so so sick. I think he did it to teach me a lesson, and it did, for about a week.

D'you know, I haven't got a clue!

Lots of people have said to me, "Oh boys are less of a worry as teenagers than girls". Hmmm........

I just hope me and dh are good enough parents to handle things. I feel reasonably okish about now until age 11 (primary years), but after that feels scary!

Someone tell me to stop panicking!

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make your feelings known that you dont like what they've done with out making a huge fuss,or it will become a thing they will do when they want to piss you off,because they know it works!most kids have a skinfull are so sick it stops them for a while but smoking is much harder to stop and once they smoke it wont be long before there offered puff,just make sure they know all the gory details of what smoking does,i have a book laying around with pics of smokers lungs,that puts them off for a while too.not all kids do it though ,i think its a lot to do with who they hang around with but you cant really police that while at school either,but 99%come through the other side well adjusted people so dont worry to much