It’s really pretty simple. But as is the case with many of the simple things in life, they are easy to do and easy not to do. That’s the case with the number one thing you can do to have an inoculating effect on your teens likelihood toward substance use and abuse.
The research has been done and it shows, in no uncertain terms, that the single most important thing that you can do to have a positive influence on your teen while decreasing the likelihood that they will use drugs, alcohol and cigarettes is to have routine family dinners with them. Yup, that’s it. It’s that simple.
But the research also shows that as kids get older the likelihood of these family gatherings at the dinner table decreases dramatically. It must be that as adolescence hits and our dependent kids become increasingly independent teenagers they get so active that the family time is a casualty.
Data suggests that with our pre-teens we are quite likely to have family dinners 4 or 5 times a week. On the other hand, with our teens it becomes more likely that we don’t even have family dinner three times a week. And with that change in frequency of family time comes an inverse likelihood that they will experiment with or even begin to use substances on a more frequent basis.
It’s not realistic to expect with teens in the house that you’ll be able to gather every evening for dinner together but what about four nights a week? Take every natural opportunity, such as Sunday nights which is a typical family night. Make some sacrifices and insist that you’ll be disciplined and find time on three other evenings. The stakes are too high not to work at this. It’s easy to do. Don’t let it be easy not to do.