Page 1

Hi! I’m Greg. My oldest child, Carmen, developed a drinking problem while she was still in high school. I didn’t even know she was drinking until it was already a big problem in her life. Now, she’s doing much better. She went into recovery and we worked through a lot together. Carmen is almost four years sober now. In those four years, I’ve learned a lot about underage drinking, and I’m determined to be more effective at preventing my son, Sean, from drinking underage. I’d like to share with you some of what I learned.

Here are two facts which you may find surprising:

1. Many children begin drinking alcohol before their parents even think to talk to them about drinking. This can be in their early teen or even pre-teen years.
2. For most children, their parents are the number one influence on their decision to drink or not drink.

So, knowing this, it’s clearly very important for us to talk our children about drinking and to talk to them about it early.

There are five recommended goals when having a conversation with your child about alcohol:

• Show clear disapproval of underage drinking
• Show you care
• Show you’re informed about alcohol and underage drinking
• Show you’re monitoring your child’s behavior and would notice if he/ she started drinking
• Build skills so your child knows how to get out of a situation where he/she is asked to drink or feels pressured to drink