Celene said:
I think a parent can only do so much, I've seen a lot of "it's the parent's fault" on this thread.
After you raise the child past a certain point, it ultimately comes down to the child on how they live their life. They could have raised them well, with many morals and values, and suddenly just take a turn for the worse. I grew up with some decent people but then got sucked into the over use of certain substances and what have you. The same goes for the above comic.
Well, of course that's true to a certain extent...for instance, when a child reaches the legal age of consent, if they wanna have sex, they're
gonna have sex. The difference is how parents react to it...I knew a
lot of kids in school whose parents, upon finding out that their 17 year old kid was sexually active,
freaked the hell out, grounded them and forbade them from seeing their boyfriend/girlfriend ever again.
Who wants to guess what the success rate on that particular tactic was? If you said absolutely ZERO, {Congratulations!} {Good job!}
The key is being completely honest with your kids when they're young, not to lie to them or threaten them with punishment. My mother was very open with me about sex when I was young, told me the implications and risks, but also told me the truth about the feelings, both emotional and physical, behind it. She was similarly truthful when it came to Pot, Cigarettes, and Alcohol, and having that knowledge
before I was exposed to those substances took away the mystery of it and allowed me to make better decisions.
Not to say that I haven't gotten trashed before, or smoked pot and cigarettes, but I've never driven drunk or made other stupid decisions while under their effects. I've never gotten in serious trouble, never had any pregnancy scares growing up, none of that ***. Not so with the kids whose parents tried to put them in a bubble and keep ***from them;
they were the ones that rolled their cars in a ditch while blown out of their mind, or got knocked up by their b/f, etc...