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My daughter is almost 11 and in September she will move on to a local secondary school.
She's very sensible and mature for her age but even so, I am aware that there are some conversations that we need to be having, not necessarily today but soon.
I still walk to school with her every day (my son attends the same school) and she rarely goes anywhere without me.
Peer pressure hasn't reared its head too much yet either, she has a large circle of friends who all live within minutes of our home, I know all their parents and, by and large, things have been extremely smooth.
But, come September, she will be walking to school without me and might be visiting friends at home after school - she won't have me around as much at certain times and her independence will certainly increase.
I will be honest and say that it hadn't yet occurred to me that I need to talk to her about alcohol.
But according to an opinion poll on the DrinkAware website, I am in a minority of 15% of parents who haven't yet discussed the alcohol issue with their children.
A straw poll of 10 friends revealed that those who had children over the age of 11 had broached the subject but of those with only under-10s, only two parents had.
My personal feeling is that as parents, we know our children and we know when It's Time To Talk.
Some facts from the DrinkAware website :
Talk to them before they are teens and before their friends do.
Research shows that it's parents - and not friends - who have the most influence on young children's attitude towards alcohol.
Make sure that your child knows that drinking alcohol is a decision - and that they can say no.
The average age of a child's first drink is under 14.
Children who start drinking at an early age drink more, and more frequently, than those who delay their first drink.
The DrinkAware website has some excellent suggestions for starting a conversation with your child on the issues above and has definitely given me some very good ideas and insights.
I feel much more confident now about tackling it and I will be passing the information on to other parents.
This is a sponsored post although the words are my own.
so very important!
ReplyDeletethanks!!
Extremely important! My grandparents were killed by a drunk driver and I have always been passionate about this very subject. Talking to your daughter before peer pressure hits is a fabulous idea. Always keep the dialogue open with your children and like I did when my kids got older, I always told them that no matter what situation they were in, as far as friends and drinking or drugs, to call me and I would always pick them up no matter what time or where they were. Great post, Simone. Happy weekend to you! xxoo
ReplyDeleteMy personal feeling was and still is...even with a grown up daughter exactly the same, Simone...you will know when it's time to talk...if your relationship is a good one as yours obviously is you will know, I promise. Children learn so much by example by your every day actions and conversations...great guidelines by the website...but do it in your time.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your lovely comments about me and Victoria...so sweet of you.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Catherine
xx