Red Ribbon Week

October 23-31 is Red Ribbon Week. The Red Ribbon Campaign is the oldest and largest drug prevention program in the nation reaching millions of young people each year. It is an ideal way for parents and communities to unite and take a stand against drugs. There are many ways parents could use this week to re-dedicate their family’s commitment to a drug-free lifestyle and a drug-free community. This could be as simple as declaring Friday, October 26 as Wear Red Day or Red Ribbon Day to show your support for the Red Ribbon Campaign. For more information about the campaign, go to www.nfp.org.

You may also want to incorporate some of these parenting tips for protecting your children from substance abuse into your daily routine:

Talk with your children about drugs and alcohol.

Kids who learn about the risks of drug abuse from their parents or caregivers are less likely to use drugs than kids who do not. Setting a firm rule of no drug use will help your children navigate peer and other pressure to use drugs.

Know what your children are doing —their activities and how they spend their time.

Get to know their friends and their friends’ parents. Check up on your children every now and then to make sure that they are where they say they are.

Build a warm, positive relationship with your children.

Be involved in your kids’ lives and praise and reward good behavior.

Keep the lines of communication open.

Set limits with clear rules and consequences for breaking them. Involve your children in the setting of rules whenever possible, and discuss the reasons for rules with them.

Make sure they understand what you expect and the consequences for disobedience, and then enforce rules consistently.

Technorati Tags: Childcare

Vote Result

Score: 0.0, Votes: 0