If SWIY was/is a parent and caught SWIY's children doing drugs, what would SWIY do?

[Riconoen {UGC}]

swim would tell him/her the facts depending on whatever substance they were using, and set some ground rules like no driving whilst high and things like that and limit the amount they were using. what would you swimmers do?

Reputation Comments on this post:

	great post and info.
	Thought provoking

[mick mouse]

SWIM agrees with passing on knowledge to the next generation, but wonders if setting ground rules and limiting amounts would actually be effective. Unless one is prepared to chain the kids to a wall with constant monitoring in place, SWIMS experience says that setting conditions will only encourage the rules to be broken. This is not to say that one should simply turn ones back, but rather that a firm and extremely detailed explanation of pharmacology and effects in a variety of situations might be more effective. Knowledge is power and trust is essential, not only in the area of drugs, but in all aspects of a child/parent relationship. If your child knows you trust them and knows that they can trust you, SWIM thinks that the children will be way more likely to make a decision regarding the use/non-use of substances in a responsible manner. It should be noted that children follow the parents lead, so this means that it is also incumbent on the parents to use substances in a responsible manner as well. If mom is shooting up and pulling a train in the living room while dad is kicking it with the crackwhores outside, don't expect that the kids will be smoking pot in their room or in a controlled environment! Personally, SWIM makes the extra effort to be very discrete by not using in front of the kids, not leaving paraphenalia laying around, no parties until all hours of the night or large numbers of strangers in short periods of time, etc. In short, responsibility and common sense! Also, SWIM has told everyone "in the trade" that anyone who sells to/gives/turns on SWIMs kids will simply disappear. No questions, no right of appeal, no mercy.

[Nature Boy]

Of course it would depend on the substance. Many people, especially here, realise that all illegal narcotics aren't the same and each one has different causes for concern. SWIM doesn't have any children so he must be hypothetical.

SWIM would emphasise not using any illegal drug before the age of 18 because of the legal implications and because SWIM would have a sense of responsibility. He would dish out the real facts about whatever drug was in question, whether it be relatively harmless drugs like pot or potentially dangerous hard drugs. Honesty is the key. Do all the drugs you want in college or whatever but while still under 18 and going to school, keep your head down.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Words of the wise.

[Lunar Loops]

Some interesting views on this very topic from some time ago can be found in this thread:

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/sho...=parents+drugs

[stoneinfocus]

Originally Posted by Riconoen {UGC}

swim would tell him/her the facts depending on whatever substance they were using, and set some ground rules like no driving whilst high and things like that and limit the amount they were using. what would you swimmers do?

Yes, that´d be the most important thing: to talk about how to stay alive and which "cocktails" to avoid.

That´d be all I would care about, my kids ( as any human being) should have the selfdetermination and with my education the honesty and objectivity and respect(lesness) obtained to handle things that they wouldn´t get out of control or only under set conditions as swim did it, too, when he was young.Well swimn still is young but experienced in nearly every illegal and legal drug around, under the most important settings -wrong and right ones.

[fatmanstan]

SWIM would encourage the lil' swimmer to be responsible and understand exactly what they are getting into. Basically, the little swimmers would be taught (hopefully) to always do their own research, and never take anyone's word on stuff that affects their health. SWIM would pass on whatever knowledge he could, and inform the lil' guy/girl of sites like erowid and this one.

[Nature Boy]

^^^

Little swimmers aren't allowed paddle in this pool though.

[jools]

If SWIM caught her children doing drugs? Its a bit global isnt it? ALCOHOL is the worst drug known to man and if SWIM caught her children sicking up on the living room floor after a night out then SWIM would have strong words. However of the same offspring came home, got SWIM out of bed to discuss the meaning of life and to investigate the garden for interesting stuff, then maybe these children would make the world a nicer place.

[AceOvArts]

SWIM is glad of his experience in drug use/abuse as he thinks he knows what to look for and can give reasoned advice to many different drugs. However, this dont mean he would approve, he has kids and though too young right now a wierd thing happens when you become a parent, you sort of get real protective of your kids and drugs is one of those taboo areas that potentially could harm your kids. Much like sex really, a father really wants to know what boy is potentially messing with his daughter etc. (different for boys though, sorry if it sounds sexist but girls and boys sexual relations are percieved different at the moment). So this is a real hard subject for SWIM, Im just glad I actually have experience with the stuff which is more than my parents had. I hope they dont try drugs for the wrong reasons, experimentation can be a good thing, doing drugs cos youre in pain is a bad thing. I think that being the person your kids WANT to come to to talk about drugs is the most important thing.Oh the joys of parenthood..lol

[Mona Lisa]

It would depend on the individual child and how its relationship developed with its parents. The main issues are health and legal, and how capable the youngster is of looking after himself.

It's also quite possible for the children (or niece/nephews) to have more conservative views than their parents (aunts/uncles), of course!

I don't have any children of my own, though I am an aunt; I am fairly conventional in that I wouldn't bring this up as a topic of conversation unless my brothers' children asked me about my views on this topic. I also definitely feel that it's inappropriate for children under 18 (and certainly under 16) to be experimenting with drugs, since it is a time they should be focusing on school or vocational training. Their brains are still developing, even in their late teens;and a criminal record even for possession could mar their future opportunities scholastically and careerwise.

I feel that anyone who is responsible for a child/youth whether they be a parent, aunt or teacher has a moral duty to try to keep them on a well-adjusted path. Once that child is of age, it then becomes a lot easier to discuss things with them on more of an equal footing.

At the same time, I think it's better for parents to be honest with their children than overtly lie; but I don't think it's always in the child's best interest for the parent to volunteer information about themselves (such as drug-taking) which should probably remain confidental. I also feel that if a parent is going to continue taking drugs, that they shouldn't do it around their children or charges, though this is just my opinion.

There are parts of life that are probably best kept compartmentalised; though I love my parents dearly, there are many things that I would rather keep private from them because I feel it's kinder to not tell them everything.

[BoosieBitch]

If SWIM found out that one of her children were using any drugs she would have to sit down and tell them that though they dont approve of this, that she cant stop it from happening and explain consequences and what not. Warm the kid about how much is too much, what can happen, side effects ect. Than if the person is someone like SWIM, they can even experiment with them.

[Each Hit]

swim would emphasize the difference between safe, recreational use of a substance and unsafe habitual use of a sbustance. swim would begin to keep a closer eye on his child's health, behavior, social life, and academic performance to help ensure swim's child avoids the dark path toward addiction and a ruined life.

in all honesty, though, swim has often asked himself this question and is unable to determine what exactly the best thing to do would be. swim would not want his child to re-live swim's negative experiences, but there is really no way to accurately convey that to a child in words. how could swim tell his progeny that they are better off not doing something (that probably feels really good at first) without tempting them to do it at some point just to see if swim was really telling the truth?? let's face it, we've all doubted our parents at some point in our lives and questioned what they taught us. swim doesn't expect any less from his children, so it might just be up to them to learn from their mistakes and not make huge mistakes that cost lives (and up to swim to subtly teach them).

[Nagognog2]

I raised me a teenager that followed me home one day, and I have younger relatives I deal with. I grew up in the 1960's and '70's and pot was everywhere. The government's "war on drugs" was viewed by many in the same way as their war on Vietnam - with loathing disrespect and anger. If you told your kids not to smoke pot, they'd figure you'd next sign them up to join the Marine Corps. The battle-lines were drawn clearly and etched in stone back then.

Most people my age smoked pot, and it was viewed about the same as masturbating - everyone does it, but after awhile it loses it's thrill and you move on in life to more tangible ideas and concepts to get you that sort of high. So you'd talk to your kids about what is appropriate behavior: Don't smoke pot in school. Don't jack-off in front of a policeman. Don't make mom wash your sticky sheets. Don't get in a car with someone smoking grass behind the wheel. And der, der, der...It wasn't such a big deal. Parents were bombarded with "Marijuana - The Killer of Youth!" propaganda - but nobody fucking believed anything the government said. Unless you were one of the unfortunates whose dad signed you up for the Marines.

Once a kid has a taste of pot/masturbation - taking the pleasure away from the kid with everything from guilt to confinement in a mental hospital is just plain cruel. Adolesence is a tough time for kids. Jacking-off relieves the pressure. And pot helps make the painful and absurd tolerable and funny. Most kids did quit smoking a lot of pot as they grew older, and don't masturbate three times a day anymore. That's my opinion. Common Sense versus Hysteria.

(Randy Marsh to Stan when Stan wanted to join Cartman's band Fingerbang)

RM: "Have you tried marijuana?"
SM: "NO."
RM: "Maybe it's time."
SM: "DAD!"

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Great post!
	That south park quote alone made my fucking day.

[AceOvArts]

The frustrating thing is that SWIM has enjoyed many drugs, but the most profound drug he experienced was LSD, this, however is 1 drug that has to be extremely well repected. When SWIM first took it he wanted to shout out and tell the world how great it was. How can he tell this to his kids ? SWIM would be very worried about letting his kids try acid, just because of how unpredicatble a trip can turn out to be. Its a very difficult subject.

[izzy31]

I think parents today do the one thing that doesn't help anyone out. Parents seem to just yell at their kids and threaten them with consequences, without even stopping to give the situation any serious thought and showing no actual concern for their kid. It's almost as if the main offense taken account of is the fact that the child disobeyed them by not following the parents rules, the one which probably sounded alot like "Don't do drugs, no matter how much we lie about them and make up fairy tale stories that you might know right away as complete myth, but mainly, remember that by doing drugs, you are doing it just to break the rules and your life will be thrown away, wasted, and we will immediately stop loving you. That being said, here's a few pages with some advice about drugs and sex related topics called "Drugs, Sex, and Why they're the source of all evil and reason bad things happen in the world", well have fun!"

And as if the parents themselves wouldn't have experimented with anything after given an outdated 1969 Copyrighted peice of info along with the big, attention grabbing, deal the whole thing has been made to be, and all those ignored warnings and assumed false statements/rumors about drugs really did the trick and drew you away from drugs and made unappealing with it's many persuasive-taken-as-a-challenge info, while it certainly didn't turn anyone on to using when it's mis-percieved or taken from the average, curious, rebellious and not to mention TEENAGE VIEW as cool or given the thought of drug use being a fashion statement, popular fad, mature thing, sex appealing, superior to others image, or anything else someone who wants to be accepted by the group would do...maybe their pride is too strong to let them realize they aren't such saints themselves, and almost sort of erase any memory of behavior or things they did as kids. Main point here is that if the parents aren't going to take confiscated goods for their own use, they still have no judgemental message of any type to persecute what they swept under the carpet and guilt trip their kids for doing! Hypocracy is such a huge issue for parents today, with no way of rationalizing their behavior to their children other than saying "I am of age and I can smoke and drink all I want but you cannot" how can anyone on this earth actually had never tried drugs at some point in their life???

The initial problem that parents make when trying to keep their child drug-free is getting over-involved with the act itself, loosing their grip on reality and forget what they should be most concerned about, and don't realize they aren't doing what is really best for the kids because they're so mixed up and lost in the whole issue. Then the main goal they were aiming for is poorly understood by the child, who might mistake the whole point of their parents statement to try an control or judge, if it wasn't already full of inaccurate info and fear as the main ingredient for their recipe of drug-abuse prevention that was created under clouded judgement, distorted overall point of view of the purpose of drug-prevention. The thing that can piss a person off about this whole thing is how no one stops to think about it carefully and it goes to the ears of kids and does jack shit for their well being and then parents oblivious to their own crap-quality teachings try to blame whatever they see that they feel can give a message to impressionable and fragile minds such as their children's!

Reputation Comments on this post:

great post