As a parent you have more influence over your child than you may realise. Evidence shows that meaningful conversations between parents and their children help the child develop a sensible relationship with alcohol.
Understand why children drink alcohol.

Understanding why your child may drink alcohol can help you influence your child to make sensible choices. Children can still be drawn to alcohol even though their first experience of it may be unpleasant.

They may not like the taste or how it makes them feel but they often persist. It’s important for them to understand the risks of underage drinking but they won’t listen or believe you unless you first address the upsides of alcohol and why people drink.

Young people drink because…
Risky behaviour is higher in puberty. Young people can take risks deliberately having made a risk assessment and deciding it’s worth it.

Their ability to assess risk isn’t accurate. This is because teenagers are struggling with two important changes to the brain during adolescence:

Puberty switches on a capacity for strong emotions, impulsive behaviour and a need for sensations. It’s why they’ll take risks even when they ‘know better’.

Learning the facts about smoking or drinking may not stop them trying because the sensation-seeking part of their brain drowns out sense. The development of the thinking brain that assesses risks, plans ahead, sees consequences and governs self-control is not fully developed until 16 or 17 years old and even then it still needs fine tuning well into the 20s.

That’s why they need you to help them until they grow into their ability to be sensible. The likelihood that a young person drinks alcohol regularly rises with age.

The AA Estcourt branch hosts meetings every Tuesday at Forderville Primary School from 7pm to 8pm. Contact Desigan on 082 849 3014.