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I have a 7 yo boy, and i wonder when do people start talking about drugs tomtheir kids. I want to equip them with the best knowledge to make the best choices in lofe and we are pretty liberal. When did you first spk w your children about drugs? Any regrets of doing it too early or too late?
Maybe age 4 or so. Addiction is a fairly common topic in our household. When addiction comes up, we talk about drug use, porn, cigs, alcohol, food and sex. At 9 and 10 my kids know a lot about addiction. They don't know much about specific drugs, but they know people use drugs to deal with emotional pain and that drug use can turn into addiction. Addiction is painful and takes over your life.
Specific drugs...maybe middle school was when we started talking about them with older kids.
As early as you can. My daughter was 5 when I was watching TV and the show had a depiction of a heroin den, and I saved the show to show my daughter that scene and explain to her about when you do hard drugs they can get you so addicted that you sell everything you own to get more and end up living in a place like this...
I showed her "before and after" pics of meth users when she was 6 I think.
My 4 yo knows "drugs are bad mmm-kay!" but doesn't know why just yet lol. We'll get there.
We don't do "big speeches" in our house about drugs, or sex/ babies or anything else, but when these things come up due to them seeing something on TV, or overhearing adults talk, we talk to the kids at an age appropriate level, and they also know they can always, always ask questions.
In our schools, they do an anti-drugs week called "Red Ribbon Week" every year, and that starts at kindergarten (age 5-6), but at the younger elementary grade levels it is more about respecting yourself and not giving in to peer pressure than actual information about different drugs, and they also have a theme each day, such as "Lei Off Drugs – Wear your most tropical (school appropriate) outfit"
It's ongoing and happened naturally after age 3. I don't shield my daughter and we discuss pretty much everything. Some of her peers don't know anything, and one girl thought she was dying because she started her period.
We've talked about pills new dangerous they can be. Kids find pills and think they are candy. My daughter brought me a pill she found when she was three. It was an Advil, so it probably wouldn't have hurt her. I'm still happy we had that talk.
People will smoke and drink around kids in public, so I made sure she knew what that was and why it's dangerous.
Starting in first grade they begin learning about drugs in school.
We started at 5, when the subject came up naturally on TV. We also talked about how medications can be dangerous since they were around grandparents taking medication.
I don't remember when it first came up, but my kids (age 7 and 10) are aware that my sister is a drug addict and they have seen the negative affects it has had on her life.
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