What Parents Should Know

Preventing Underage Drinking is a Mom and Pop Operation.

While it’s easy to place the blame for underage drinking on outside influences, what many parents don’t realize is the effect they have on whether their pre-teen or teen drinks alcohol or not.

An annual survey from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University admonished parents for contribution to alcohol and drug use among kids ages 12-17.

The report stated, “Some parents fail to monitor their children’s activities, do not safeguard medications at home that can be used for abuse, and do not set good examples for kids.”

“It’s important to do the parenting essential to help your child negotiate the difficult teen years free of tobacco, alcohol and drugs.”
- Elizabeth Planet, Director of Special Projects, National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse

Talk to your child about drinking and drugs. Don’t introduce them to it.

Back when you were a kid, chances are your parents or a family member introduced you to alcohol at home, because they thought it was safer than letting you discover it with your friends. Well, research has proven how wrong that is. The fact is, kids who are introduced to alcohol at home are much more likely to drink alcohol, and drink more often. That’s why it’s so important that you never, ever offer your child a drink—especially since new research proves that alcohol is much more dangerous to a child’s brain than we ever thought.

New government studies show that 40% of nearly 11 million 12-20 year-old drinkers get their alcohol directly from a grown-up, which is sometimes a parent. In fact, 650,000 of the kids were given alcohol by their own parents in the past month, and 30% were in their own home when they had their last drink. *

Parents should never buy or give alcohol to children under the age of 21. When grown-ups offer kids a drink, it sends a message that drinking is acceptable and safe. Another thing for adults to remember is if anything tragic happens, like an accident, injury, alcohol poisoning or death, the adult is the one responsible. And many states are passing laws to punish these adults, both financially and criminally.

* Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2002, 2006