Staying In Touch With Your Teen
Know where your teen is when he or she is away from home. Have your kids check in with you regularly. Give them coins, a phone card or mobile phone with clear usage rules. (For example, "When I leave you a voicemail, I expect a call back within five minutes.")
- Make a list of your teens activities for the coming day and put it on the fridge, on a calendar or in your wallet or pocketbook.
- Walk through your neighborhood and note where kids your teen's age hang out.
- Know your teen's friends. Have a small party at your house and invite the parents of teen's friends. Have your teen's friends stay for dinner. Ask them about their parents. Make a point of meeting your teen's friends' parents — find them at a school event or PTA meeting, soccer practice, dance rehearsal or wherever they hang out.
- Work with other parents to get a list of everyone's addresses, e-mails, and phone numbers so you can keep in touch with your teen.
- Show up a little early to pick up your teen so you can observe their behavior.
- Occasionally check to see that your teen is where they said they were going to be.
Lots of teenagers get in trouble with drugs right after school — from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Try to be with your teens then, but if you can't, make sure your teen is doing something positive with an adult around: Sports, jobs, clubs, after-school programs or religious youth groups. If your teen has to be home, make sure they are doing homework or chores and not just hanging out with friends.
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Source: The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign's Behavior Change Expert Panel