Keeping your teens occupied enough to keep them out of trouble is hard anyway, but these days if most teens are not in a youth club somewhere, playing sport or on a computer, you may well find them on a street corner drinking, smoking, (not just cigarettes!) and probably making a nuisance of themselves.



I'm not saying all teenagers that hang around are doing drugs or drinking themselves silly, but when boredom sets in, things they would not normally do, become that little bit more tempting. The schools do touch on the subjects of drugs and things, but we cannot leave all the responsibility down to them. Parents need to start doing more for their kids, including talking to them about the things in this world that are no good for them.

When teenagers develop an addiction, it is not always just their fault. There can be lots of different reasons why some one gets addicted or just into taking something they should not. The thing to remember is not to go mad, but try to understand how they got to this stage. Help them, don't punish them.

When first taking alcohol, smoking or other types of drugs, it is not always the choice we would usually make, it's the same with anybody really and peer pressure can be one of the catalysts. Again the, things for bored teenagers to do aren't always the things, that we want them to. Not all the people they meet are going to be good for them, but we can point them in the right direction.

If we could show more interest and take an active past in the pastimes of our teens then maybe we can keep them away from the other things we as parents don't want them to do. In other words, find things for bored teenagers to do. Even if it means, driving them a few miles to go to a sports center, a youth club or just helping them with a certain activity, it does help and shows them about responsibility.

Knowing when some one has an addiction is not an easy thing; people hide addiction very well and teenagers are masters at keeping from you things that they don't want you to find out. So drug addiction and teenagers and parents and responsibility go hand in hand, because we are the ones who need to teach them about responsibility, addiction and everything else in life. Well most of it.

Being able to spot when some one has an addiction is not easy as most people are very good at hiding things, especially drugs and alcoholism. Teenagers are even better at hiding things than you think. Parents should be able to talk, openly and honestly, with their teens without holding back. After all they are young adults and every teen thinks they are older than their years anyway, so give them a bit more respect, even if they don't show it to you. Most of all, remember drug addiction and teenagers and parents and responsibility, are all linked, one way or the other.