How Can You Protect Your Children From Drug and Alcohol
Protecting your children’s sobriety is as equally important or more important as protecting your own. That’s why preparing them for the temptations ahead can be their guiding light to make the right decisions along the way. Bearing that in mind, here are some preventative measures you can take to protect your children from substance abuse.
Teach Them the Importance of Saying “No”
It’s very easy to fall into the trap of being a people pleaser when your goal is to be accepted. That can make it hard to say no to social situations from people they want to feel accepted. Teaching your child the importance of saying “no” is key to protecting them from a hard life of substance dependency. Teach them that saying no empowers them, while saying yes, puts others in control of their circumstances.
Remind Them Who Their True Friends Are
When you’re an adolescent or teen, it’s always a goal to fit in with those you consider cool. This often clouds a child’s better judgment to recognize the people who truly care about them. That’s why a large part of helping your child make the right decisions starts with the influences in their life. That’s why it’s so vital to teach and remind your children that the right influences are the ones who accept them for who they are. Correlatively, helping them understand that people who accept them only for doing certain activities are not people who truly care.
Help Them Consider the Consequences
A part of being a teenager involves living in the moment. However, that mentality proves detrimental to decision-making. Therefore, planting the thought in your child’s mind that every action has consequences, could help them demonstrate proper discernment. Thankfully, Spero Recovery has in-depth training methods to help you implement these life-changing thought processes in your child’s life. Speak to a compassionate representative to learn more about how we can help you help your child.
Share Your Story
You can help your child by sharing your addiction background. Sharing your addiction battle and how it started can make the consequences real to them. Opening up to them about your pain and troublesome road will help them think twice about embarking on a similar journey. Whether you currently consider yourself a good example or a bad example, your story could change their life. Doing so can also open the door to developing and building a long-lasting bond.