Teenagers, Drugs and Boredom
Parents may not have the responsibility to keep their teenagers from getting bored, but boredom can lead to all sorts of things. Drug addiction and teenagers and parents and responsibility, these things are intertwined, whether we like it or not.
Keeping your teens occupied enough to keep them out of trouble is hard anyway, but these days if most teens are not in a youth club somewhere, playing sport or on a computer, you may well find them on a street corner drinking, smoking, (not just cigarettes!) and probably making a nuisance of themselves.
Boredom, as most of us know, can lead to people doing stupid things, or just things that people would not normally do. Drugs are one of these things that should not be placed firmly on the shoulders of the younger generation. Neither should we leave the education, on topics like drugs, to the schools.
When teenagers develop an addiction, it is not always just their fault. There can be lots of different reasons why some one gets addicted or just into taking something they should not. The thing to remember is not to go mad, but try to understand how they got to this stage. Help them, don’t punish them.
When a teenager first experiments with alcohol, drugs or tobacco, it can be down to peer pressure. A teenager’s friendship can last throughout his, or her life, so they need to have the right friends. This will not always happen and as parents, we need to take some responsibility in that as well. Giving them a strong family base, with morals and being able to tell right from wrong, is a good start.
Finding things for bored teenagers to do, and in turn keeping them away from the things you don’t want them near, can be fun for all the family. Just having a laugh with teenagers over what they don’t want to do is fun, it need not be an argument. Take them to the sports center or even to the movies, anything as long as you do it together, if they don’t want to be seen with you, take them out of town.
If your teenager takes drugs, or becomes addicted to drugs, it is not the end of the world. You can still talk to them about it, without getting angry making them feel like you don’t understand. It is not all about rebellion, but about taking responsibility for the situation they’ve got themselves into and you taking responsibility for them as the parent.
The most important thing is if you are unfortunate enough to find your teenager has an addiction, never give up on them, because if you do it may just be the last real thing they remember some one doing for them. Or rather, not doing for them.