How to talk to your kids about alcohol
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Have you had The Talk with your school-ager yet" No, not the sex talk?the alcohol talk. You may have thought this particular heart-to-heart could wait until high school, but speaking to your kids about drinking should happen by age nine, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
That might sound young. After all, many nine-year-olds are still playing with Lego and Barbies. But this is when kids start to think positively about alcohol, thanks in part to ads that depict it as fun, social and risk-free, says Catherine Paradis, a senior research and policy analyst at the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse in Ottawa. Researchers also say you have the most influence on your kid?s feelings and decisions about alcohol before she tries it. Your mission: Mitigate the ?alcohol equals fun? equation. Not with scary stories or a narrow ?not until you?re legal? edict, but by arming your kid with practical and factual information, says Laura Morelli, a public health nurse in Waterloo, Ont., whose work focuses on injury and substance misuse prevention. You want your kid to know that it?s OK for adults to enjoy moderate amounts of alcohol, and that it?s a large part of the adult world. You want them to question the way alcohol is portrayed in ads, media and movies; to know drinking isn?t safe for kids because their brains and bodies are still growing; and to understand that if anyone drinks too much, there can be negative consequences, says Paradis.
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