Dunno how many parents are here in a nonserious community, but I’m curious what y’all are doing. Probably more of a progressive crowd here even if conservative because Lemmy.
We told our kids everything when they asked, and some more when they didn’t, about all drugs including alcohol and even energy drinks. We didn’t demonize the drugs, if anything we told them pot would be a better choice than alcohol, but we told them about the negatives and even some of the positives some might have - but the dangers of drugs like heroin we hit pretty hard. Yeah, they can be fun. Some have a really steep price, though. Probably started talking about this seriously when they were 8, but they knew about it all earlier.
They already told us about kids bringing vapes to school in 5th grade. Mostly just kids being stupid trying to be cool. 6-8th shit gets more serious. Odd knife threat, real vaping, kids being sent to the hospital after pounding 5 energy drinks with 200mg caffeine in each one. And we’re in a “good” school district. Funny, in my day it was kids trying to smoke in the bathroom or loading a soda cup with vodka they got from wherever. Now it’s vapes, energy drinks, and I’m waiting for the alcohol stories. Most of the kids doing this stuff early have some f’d up parents from what my kids tell us.
I have pretty honest conversations with my kid. He is pretty bright and I can explain things to him.
A while back we had a conversation about weed. I told him it’s just a plant that grows, gets harvested, processed and smoked. Since, he’s still single digits in age, I told him it’s an herb. I didn’t really want him screaming “weed!” If he smelled it outside.
I’m nervous about him growing up today. It’s a scary world out there, alls’ I can do is try and teach him about it.
When I was growing up, even in a very Christian conservative household, my mother was very open to me about drugs and what they meant. She related her own experiences as well as that of people she knew clearly, honestly, and without scaremongering. From that, I had a passing interest in LSD that I never acted on, but everything else sounded rather… not worth the trouble.
In middle school, back in the mid-2000s, we had water bottles banned because of kids bringing in vodka in them. By high school, we had regular bomb threats. Good times!
Yeah, sounds similar to our approach sans religion. Kids got some messed up stuff to deal with. I grew up with the threat of nuclear annihilation. Terrifying, but impersonal. Now kids have to deal with the possibility of being shot, or hear it happening to a friend or classmate. Someone might pipe up and give a bullshit reason about statistics and how unlikely it is. I can tell you I never had a nuke fall on my school, but there’s kids shot plenty enough.
Dunno how many parents are here in a nonserious community, but I’m curious what y’all are doing. Probably more of a progressive crowd here even if conservative because Lemmy.
We told our kids everything when they asked, and some more when they didn’t, about all drugs including alcohol and even energy drinks. We didn’t demonize the drugs, if anything we told them pot would be a better choice than alcohol, but we told them about the negatives and even some of the positives some might have - but the dangers of drugs like heroin we hit pretty hard. Yeah, they can be fun. Some have a really steep price, though. Probably started talking about this seriously when they were 8, but they knew about it all earlier.
They already told us about kids bringing vapes to school in 5th grade. Mostly just kids being stupid trying to be cool. 6-8th shit gets more serious. Odd knife threat, real vaping, kids being sent to the hospital after pounding 5 energy drinks with 200mg caffeine in each one. And we’re in a “good” school district. Funny, in my day it was kids trying to smoke in the bathroom or loading a soda cup with vodka they got from wherever. Now it’s vapes, energy drinks, and I’m waiting for the alcohol stories. Most of the kids doing this stuff early have some f’d up parents from what my kids tell us.
I have pretty honest conversations with my kid. He is pretty bright and I can explain things to him.
A while back we had a conversation about weed. I told him it’s just a plant that grows, gets harvested, processed and smoked. Since, he’s still single digits in age, I told him it’s an herb. I didn’t really want him screaming “weed!” If he smelled it outside.
I’m nervous about him growing up today. It’s a scary world out there, alls’ I can do is try and teach him about it.
When I was growing up, even in a very Christian conservative household, my mother was very open to me about drugs and what they meant. She related her own experiences as well as that of people she knew clearly, honestly, and without scaremongering. From that, I had a passing interest in LSD that I never acted on, but everything else sounded rather… not worth the trouble.
In middle school, back in the mid-2000s, we had water bottles banned because of kids bringing in vodka in them. By high school, we had regular bomb threats. Good times!
Yeah, sounds similar to our approach sans religion. Kids got some messed up stuff to deal with. I grew up with the threat of nuclear annihilation. Terrifying, but impersonal. Now kids have to deal with the possibility of being shot, or hear it happening to a friend or classmate. Someone might pipe up and give a bullshit reason about statistics and how unlikely it is. I can tell you I never had a nuke fall on my school, but there’s kids shot plenty enough.