It’s one of those images that never seems to have changed over the last two or three generations: groups of teens, sitting on swings at the local park at night, passing round a huge bottle of cider. Why cider is anyone’s guess, but the whole elicit buzz some teens get from being out after dark with their mates getting ‘wasted’ is now a time-honoured tradition.
But the dangers of alcohol have never been better known than they are today. Society is getting the message that excessive, irresponsible alcohol consumption is a big no-no, bad for the individual (in terms of their health and, in teenagers, their development) and bad for society (in terms of cost of policing and healthcare for drink-related illness, violence and accidents).
What can we do, as parents, to make sure our child is not the one passing round the cider? Or getting blotto on alcopops? There is undoubtedly a great deal of peer pressure to drink, and it can seem to many teens that they are the only ones not drinking. Part of our role as parents is to educate our children that firstly, alcohol can do harm, and secondly they are not really the only teenager in the world who can and will refuse a drink.
Educate your child as to the risks associated with alcohol, but also bolster their self-esteem by making them realise that it takes a truly strong person to say no to their friends, and that that kind of inner strength is to be admired.
If they want to know exactly what’s wrong with having a drink, you can tell them:
- Alcohol gets you ‘drunk’ by damaging your brain: it slows reaction times, lowers inhibitions (so people will do things that normally the little voice inside them would tell them will make them look blooming stupid), and fogs up their thinking process so they make poor choices;
- It’s extremely addictive;
- You can get addicted to alcohol at any age (becoming ‘alcoholic’). Alcoholics are not just shabby old men on park benches – about half of people who start drinking before the age of 14 end up addicted (compared to about 9% of people who waited until they were 18 to start drinking);
- Driving (or being driven) whilst (the driver is) drunk kills.
- Human brains start developing in the womb and don’t stop until about the age of twenty-one. If you drink whilst you are under that age, you risk damaging your brain’s development and may permanently impair your intellect and general abilities.
- Being drunk makes you more likely to become a victim – of rape, robbery or assault.
Despite what their friends might be telling them, most teenagers do not drink. Fewer than 1 in 10 under-14 year olds have drunk alcohol in the last month; fewer than 3 in 10 teens aged 15 – 17 years have drunk alcohol in the last month. Not everybody is drinking; make sure your child has enough confidence to make sure that they’re not either.