I didn’t think we needed to talk to our kids about drugs and alcohol until they were in high school or college. I was wrong.

I also mistakenly believed that parents don’t have that much influence over whether their kids struggle with substances or not.

I didn’t know that there ARE things we can do to minimize the risk for our kids.

One of the most important things is simply to have conversations (not lectures) with our kids about drugs and alcohol.

When should we start talking to them?

Sooner than you may think!

Kids–who have trouble with drugs or alcohol–tend to start in middle school. So that means we need to have conversations with kids in elementary school and EVEN preschool!

We sat down with Jessica Lahey recently to talk about how to have these conversations at each age and stage, to minimize the risk of kids getting addicted to drugs or alcohol.

It’s not as hard as it sounds.

It doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming to talk to young ones about substances.

In fact, whether you’ve realized it or not, you’ve probably already started educating your kids about chemicals.

Watch this video (7 min) to hear what Jessica recommends to say to kids in the preschool, elementary and middle school ages.

Resources:

You’re going to want to check out Jessica’s brand new book The Addiction Inoculation. It was just released and you’re going to want this one on your shelves to refer to for the next several years.

Get the full interview in The Village by Happily Family.

And if you’d like to be on LIVE, while we talk to luminaries like this AND get coaching with Cecilia and Jason, join The Village.