(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — This is Red Ribbon Week, a week that highlights drug and alcohol prevention among young people — and experts say parents need to better communicate with their children about the dangerous effects of those substances.
Barb Thayer is executive director of the Hinsdale-based Candor Health Education, which provides substance use and sex education to 80,000 Chicago area young people every year.
“That’s primarily why we work with fourth through eighth grade students, because we’re trying to catch them and inform them of what the impacts of alcohol and substance abuse are before they ever really are exposed to it,” Thayer said.
Thayer said parents need to talk with their children about drugs and alcohol early and set boundaries before it becomes an issue for them.
Even though, in Illinois, about half of students have had some kind of experience with those substances by their senior year of high school — the same number have not, Thayer said.
“Social norming is so relevant to these young people, especially with social media and the way that they communicate, that they see people at parties and they think everybody’s doing it,” she said. “If they’re not doing it, they feel like they’re the odd man out.”
Thayer said parents should not be afraid to be the bad guy, which is really being the good guy.
“This is one of the things I told my kids: ‘Use me as an excuse,’” Thayer said. “If you ever get in a situation where you feel like you’re uncomfortable, our term was — just make up a word — but our term was, ‘I have a belly ache.’”
When Thayer’s kids would text that to her, she’d go to pick them up.
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