High School counsellors invite you to the last in our series of ‘Parenting Talks’:
What do you know about smoking, vaping, cannabis and the options on the street here in Hanoi? Come and hear and share in the research and ideas for talking to your teen about what they know and think.
“Adolescents Pushing Boundaries & Making Decisions Without Thinking About Consequences”
When: Friday, May 31 @ 8:00 – 9:00 am
Where: Community Room B7 104
As a community we strive to work in partnership with families for the most effective learning in both academic and social/emotional areas. Teen years can be challenging for students and parents alike.
In the classroom and through School programmes, our counsellors and PE team discuss healthy choices and peer pressure. We also have a bi-annual programme with Freedom from Chemical Dependency which we are hoping to extend next year. But this is an issue which extends beyond School and we would appreciate the opportunity to discuss strategies and information that will be helpful for all families.
Pushing boundaries, doing new and exciting (and possibly dangerous) things. This is adolescence and a part of your child’s efforts to assert their not-quite-adult independence. Since your teen is not always as good as they think they are at making decisions about things that have real consequences, their willingness to take risks and make impulsive choices is concerning for the adults in their world.
Whether accessing parents’ beverage cupboards, purchasing vape devices or experimenting with cannabis edibles, sound, mature judgement is rarely involved. Given the local availability, illegality and long lasting negative health aspect of vaping, cannabis and excessive alcohol consumption for teens and their developing brains and lungs, conversations with your adolescent are extremely important. Popular now among adolescents are vape devices (aka – E-cigarettes) with reports indicating that 2.1 million middle and high school students have been users. (childmind.org) The draw is that they are compact (easily appearing to be a pen or a flash drive, so easy to hide) and come in a wide variety of ‘appealing’ flavors. These flavors easily mask the reality that vape pens are nicotine delivery devices at much higher levels than cigarettes, including carcinogenic compounds. The marketing of vape devices is very effective at leading adolescents to believe that they cause not harm, and because of the sleek designs they are a ‘must have’ for teens who enjoy being on the cutting edge of new trends.
Effective conversations with teenagers can be hard work… but it is essential and in this last of our ‘Parenting Talks’ we hope to give you some strategies on framing the conversations and some resources to help guide your discussions.
We hope the resources below will be a helpful start and we will be sharing more at Friday’s coffee morning. It is always useful for our planning if you can let us know if you plan to attend: RSVP form
Articles that might help: ChildMind Institute
