Parents-

    The 8th graders watch a very intense drug video about the truth amongst teen usage of alcohol and drugs.  After the video they had to answer some opinion questions.  One of the questions was, "What do you recommend a parent to do to help their child/children not to experiment with alcohol or drugs?".  The following are their statements my students wrote down.  Hopefully this helps you know what you should do to help your own child/children not to engage in alcohol and/or drugs.  It's also amazing how mature their responses are as well.

"Keep them away, and pay more attention to them"

"Be nosey with your kids, they won't like it at first, but they will know why you did it later in life"

"Don't drink a lot in front of your child and talk to them about it"

"Keep all the alcohol out of their reach and tell them what will happen if they do drugs"

"Tell them that drugs are bad and talk to them about someone that the parent and the kid know and what happened to that person"

"Don't have alcohol in the house.  Be more strict of where they're going or what they are doing"

"Talk with them about how they feel and if the parent had an experience with the same situation, they can tell them about what happened"

"Talk with them and tell them it's not a good idea"

"Talk to their kids about it and don't do it"

"Don't let them go out to parties and don't give them drugs or alcohol"

"I would tell a parent to not teach their child bad habits, and tell the parent to teach the child side effects"

"Talk to your kids at a young age"

"Keep a good eye on there kid and give them the attention they need.  Tell them the consequences.  Don't drink in front of them unless they're mature enough to know it's no good for our age"

"Tell them not to do anything (drugs or alcohol), so they don't want to be like a parent who does drugs or alcohol"

"The parents should talk to their kids so the know what they do"

"Parents shouldn't do stuff and specially in front of the kids.  Tell them all the bad stuff that can happen"

"They should talk to their child about it and say how bad it is"

"Don't drink alcohol in front of your children"

"Tell the kids they will get in a lot of trouble if they do it"

"Tell stories about what happened to people or take everything out of the house that they would use"

"Tell them if they did it or new someone who did, and explain how bad it made that person's life"

"Tell the bad things, side effects, and consequences of the drug"

"The same thing the health teacher does but without the videos"

"Teach them how bad it is, and what it can do to your life"

"Parents can be involved in a child's life and not use themselves"

"They should talk to their kids early on about the dangers"

"Tell them the side effects and talk to them about it"

"Be aware of their child and where they are and what people they're with.  This can say a lot by what they're going to do"

"The parents shouldn't do it at all, so the kids won't want to"

"Try not to make their kids angry or depressed"

"Sit down with them and tell them all the consequences"

"Tell them what could happen and what the effects are.  Also tell them what you will do (ex: kick them out)"

"Talk to their child and tell them why they shouldn't do it"

"Talk to them and listen to their kids instead of saying, "I no being a teenager is hard, I've been there"

"Talk to them"

"Tell their children that it is not acceptable and try to not do anything they tell their kids not to do"

"Educate kids on effects of alcohol and drugs.  Don't drink in front of the kids"

"Tell them it's bad and dangerous"

"I recommend parents to sit down and talk to their kids about the dangers and consequences of drinking alcohol and doing drugs at a young age"