The moment is now to have a deeper understanding of the messages your child is hearing about alcohol, their effects, and how you can reshape your own messaging moving forward to support healthy decisions. Although peer pressure to drink alcohol is often not a factor until children are between the ages of 11 and 14, children continue to receive signals and examples throughout their early years that will directly affect their ability to make mature judgments regarding alcohol when the time comes. In the early years of your 9-year-old child’s life, what you do as a parent or someone in a parenting capacity, and the messages you convey regarding alcohol, can set them up for success.
The most often used substance among kids is alcohol, which has a significant effect on how their brains grow. Your kids will be exposed to more unsafe settings during their adolescent years, which may involve alcohol, drugs, or risky sexual practices. These difficulties appear naturally as your child develops.
In order to prepare your child for these risk-taking scenarios, as a parent or someone in a parenting capacity, you can provide them with knowledge, coping mechanisms, and abilities for making ethical decisions. The actions listed below will develop your child’s ability to make wise decisions regarding alcohol usage as well as help them learn more about your family’s values and how they relate to alcohol.
Why Mixed Messages About Alcohol?
Alcohol consumption and its impact on children’s lives and communities are frequently presented in contradictory ways. Television programs may feature advertisements or alcohol items presented in a glamorous light. Adults who are intoxicated may be encountered at weddings, festivals, or concerts. Although they have an effect, these outside messages concerning alcohol are not as important as the ones you and your close friends and family send to your children through your behavior. It’s also never too late to increase your awareness of the messages your child is hearing, their effects, and how you might modify your future messages to support healthy lifestyle choices.
Today, encouraging sensible alcohol use decisions can, in the short run,
- Help to improve communication between family members regarding the role of alcohol;
- Help you to better understand what your child is learning about alcohol and if the messages they are receiving are desirable or need to be changed;
- Help you feel sure that you have equipped your child to make healthy selections and encourage them to make wise decisions.
Tomorrow, over time, your child tend to
- Build the capacity to set boundaries and form healthy relationships;
- Develop self-control skills;
- Cultivate healthy habits that will support their long-term emotional and mental wellbeing;
- Make more conscious decisions about their actions; and feels more trust and support from you.
Related: Alcoholism: The Beautiful Monster
A Guide for Talking to Kids by Age
Preschoolers
Children in preschool are not yet ready for extensive information regarding alcohol. But you may lead by example by engaging in healthy diet, physical activity, and responsible (or nonexistent) alcohol consumption. If children do ask inquiries regarding alcohol, kindly and openly respond to them.
4–7 years Old
When the topic of drinking spontaneously arises, bring it up. Ask your child if they are aware of the effects that alcohol consumption has on the body, for instance, if you are watching TV and see an advertisement for alcohol. Simplify the information: Alcohol makes the body and mind more sluggish. It becomes challenging to determine when an automobile is approaching too closely or the depth of the water. And it causes bad breath in people.
Explain to your child that drinking can harm a developing body and increases the likelihood of developing drinking issues later in life if they inquire as to why adults can drink but not children.
8 to 11 years Old
At this age, children can learn about the negative consequences of alcohol and why it’s harmful to developing bodies and minds.
You can discuss some of alcohol’s immediate consequences, like:
- Distorted coordination, hearing, and vision
- Alteration of perceptions and emotions impairs judgment, which can result in accidents, drowning, and other unsafe activities.
- Hangovers
- Bad breath
Additionally, long-term impacts include:
- Loss of appetite and liver damage
- Stomach discomfort
- Brain and heart damage
- Lack of recall
- Children at this age desire to blend in with their peers. Teach your youngster the value of Thinking and acting as an individual.
12-17 years Old
Teen years are a time to practice active listening and open communication. Continue leading by example. Even though it seems like your children aren’t listening to you, research demonstrates that parents do have a genuine impact on their children’s behavior.
Discuss compelling arguments against drinking, such as:
- Drinking at a young age result in alcohol issues in the future.
- Teenagers who drink are more likely to start having sex earlier and without protection.
- Teenagers who drink are more prone to experience academic difficulties.
- Performance in sports can suffer if you drink.
- Drinking is forbidden for those under 21.
- Drinking may cause permanent brain alterations.
Teaching kids the truth about alcohol and intimidating them can cause them to become shut down. However, be up forward with your adolescent and let them know you don’t want them to drink. Make sure your teen is aware that if there are alcohol problems in the family, they may be more susceptible to developing one themselves.
Teenagers strive to be accepted and liked by their peers. Assist yours in practicing for various scenarios so they are prepared. When someone offers them a drink at a party, what should they say? What happens if the person they’re supposed to drive with is intoxicated? Together, come up with ideas. Remind your teen that they can always call or contact you, and you’ll come get them without any lectures or consequences.
Steps to Encourage Healthy Decisions
This five-step method teaches you and your child more about the use of alcohol and how to encourage healthy lifestyle choices while avoiding peer pressure that can result in alcohol use and misuse. Additionally, it helps your youngster develop essential skills. Other parenting-related concerns can also be addressed using the same procedure.
Step 1: Encourage your Child to think by asking for their Opinion
Asking your child open-ended questions will help them consider wise decisions regarding alcohol. You’ll encourage your kid to think by doing this. Additionally, you’ll start to comprehend their perspectives, emotions, and difficulties better so that you can help them.
Your child seeks input in order to has a greater sense of ownership in anything they’ve created (and with that sense of ownership comes a greater responsibility for implementing new strategies and taking responsibility for their own relationships); will be more motivated and courageous to take responsibility for their actions; and will be working with you on making informed decisions (understanding the reasons behind your choices).
Ask your child questions and pay close attention to their answers since they will influence how you talk to them about drinking. What have you noticed about how foods and beverages affect your body, for example? Which foods and beverages make you feel what way?
Children do not always understand how what they eat and drink affects how their body functions and how they feel. For instance, you might want to draw attention to how sugar, which can be found in foods like candy or drinks like soda, initially gives you a lot of energy but then quickly saps the energy. You might draw attention to the ways in which vegetables and protein help you grow muscle and provide you enduring energy.
You could wish to draw attention to energizers like energy drinks and caffeinated beverages like coffee, tea, and soda. These illustrations aid a child in understanding the connection between what they put into their bodies and how it affects how they feel. These insights could be the first time your child has thought about substances in this way, and they will establish the foundation for future healthy decisions.
Step 2: Interactive Modeling to teach new Skills
Even though your youngster has probably witnessed adults drinking, you may or may not have specifically discussed the effects of alcohol. Your child’s initial opinions on alcohol may have been shaped by a variety of interactions with adults. It might be difficult to determine what lessons your child has learnt from such modeling because alcohol can be such a common and frequent presence in daily life, especially during joyous events. Nevertheless, the best teacher is you—your actions—by example.
Step 3: Practice to Improve Your Skills and Form Habits
Practice can take the shape of role-playing, collaborative work, or practicing a new skill with you as a coach and source of ready assistance. Children need practice in order to internalize new skills. With practice, your child’s brain develops crucial new connections that get stronger every time they practice the new skill.
Find concrete methods that both you and your child can make incremental progress toward the goals you’ve established for making healthy choices.
Reflect back feelings when your child comes to you with a social issue, whether it’s with a friend or a teacher. Find out what options your youngster may have when speaking with this other individual. Perhaps use encouraging words to encourage your youngster to bring up the subject. Convey your belief that they are capable of handling their own conversations and resolving their own issues.
Develop empathy. When your child tells you about a disagreement between friends or a mistake another person committed, discuss the viewpoint of that friend. Misguided behavior is frequently a sign of buried hurt or unfulfilled emotional needs. With your child, practice exploring causes and demonstrating compassion for the individual who is having a hard time. Your youngster will practice better understanding others’ feelings and thoughts instead of passing judgment. This can be a very useful tool as they negotiate difficult social circumstances.
Share examples of your or your child’s capacity for empathy and kindness. Your child’s identity will start to take shape as a result of these experiences as someone who can act compassionately and with empathy regardless of social constraints.
Foster leadership. After all, a leader eventually emerges in any organization. And they are frequently the ones who put pressure on others to do what they desire.
Step 4: Encourage the Success and Development of Your Child
You have now jointly learnt about the conflicting signals and alcohol-related role models your youngster experiences. Setting objectives and collaborating on them while exchanging success stories has served as practice. You can now provide assistance when it’s required. When parents observe their children struggling with a circumstance where they need assistance, they automatically provide support. It is the same with this.
Step 5: Acknowledge Quality and Effort to Encourage Motivation
Your support and adulation, regardless of your child’s age, are the best rewards. It will be worthwhile for you to acknowledge your child’s efforts to advance their talents, no matter how little they may be. Your praise can go a long way toward encouraging good habits and assisting your child in managing their emotions. Your appreciation encourages partnerships that are safe, secure, and loving, which lays the groundwork for open communication and a positive relationship with you as they mature.
How else can Parents Help?
Even for teenagers, parents serve as examples. So set a good example by abstaining from alcohol altogether, drinking sensibly, and never utilizing it to ease stress. Your children will learn to make wise judgments if you have regular, open discussions with them. Still, parents need to enforce regulations and keep an eye out for issues. If your child does try alcohol, ask them to be honest with you. Don’t dismiss it if you suspect your youngster has been drinking but hasn’t told you. Your child’s doctor can assist if you believe there might be a significant issue.
Additionally, you can:
- Know where and with whom your children are with.
- Understand how to communicate with your children. They should be carrying their phone and have it on, and you should know the phone numbers of their companions or the house they are visiting.
- Learn how to contact the parents of the friends of your children.
- Talk to older children and teenagers about your beliefs towards alcohol. Be clear that your youngster should not consume alcohol.
- When your children are away from home, let them know how frequently you want them to check in.
- Inform your young driver that it is not acceptable to consume any amount of alcohol while driving.