Youth Alcohol Awareness
New online self-guided course!
How to talk to your kids about alcohol
- Videos to watch with your kids explaining alcohol’s chemical impact to our brains, bodies and emotions
- How to raise your own drinking behaviours and why this is key
- Tools to help kids cope with social anxiety and trust their own decisions
- Tools to help your kids cope with social anxiety and be less susceptible to peer pressure
Pay what you want!
Videos about alcohol to watch with your kids
This video is prepared with your kids in mind. It can be watched together with your child so that you can both view it, reflect on it and have a chat. I address how alcohol stimulates the pleasure centre of our brain and triggers the release of dopamine which makes us feel relief for a small period (followed by hours of crap) and makes us think we like to drink it!
Kids & Alcohol course for additional videos
I have two more videos just like this. One addresses why some adults drink excessively and why our society is obsessed with alcohol and the other is all about how alcohol takes away our fun vibe. These videos are part of my pay what you want Kids & Alcohol course and both are designed to increase alcohol awareness.
Raising kids who trust their own decisions
I am truly passionate about this topic. I work with parents and teenagers to build stronger relationships and help them navigate difficult topics such as alcohol. Separately I work as a program counsellor for a youth mentoring organisation. So I listen and talk to teenagers – a lot!
I regularly get asked how parents can communicate effectively on this topic so that their kids actually listen. To get to this point we need our kids to have “bought into” our message about alcohol. This is tricky when our kids are moving towards independence and making their own choices.
This is where I can provide some support by way of my online course or one-to-one counselling & coaching which is all about how to connect with your kids so they engage with our message. I invite you to:
- check out my self-guided online course above, or
- book in a free 30 minute discovery call with me to discuss one-on-one options.
Are you a mum who has paused her career to raise her family and now find yourself trapped? Or is your career going ok but are you tired of struggling?
Support for you and your family
I help parents engage their kids on this topic by building stronger connections. I can:
- address your questions and concerns you have about this topic
- help plan your conversation
- share simple techniques to strengthen your relationship with your child
- share tools to help your child cope with socially anxious moments, and
- provide resources to help you answer your child’s questions about alcohol.
Teenagers want to know fact-based information about what alcohol does chemically to their bodies and why our society and some adults are obsessed with it. I can help you engage them on this topic so that they listen.
Let’s take alcohol’s power and allure away.
Why this conversation is often tricky
Common reasons that parents find this conversation difficult to navigate:
- there is a family history of problematic alcohol use or a close family member has had an alcohol use disorder
- a parent may have their own history with alcohol or continues to do so
- your connection with your child is going through a difficult stage and they do not listen to any advice you have to give
- alcohol plays a prominent part in the way your family and friends socialise
- one parent or an older child drinks regularly
- your child’s friend’s parents have very different rules around alcohol than you
- you have had a traumatic experience in your life which involved alcohol
- you are worried you do not have the answers to your child’s questions.
All of these reasons are normal and understandably can make the conversation difficult. Fact-based, honest sharing of your experiences around alcohol rewards you with stronger connections with your kids. We want them to learn and grow from our mistakes.
Are you a mum who has paused her career to raise her family and now find yourself trapped? Or is your career going ok but are you tired of struggling?
Resources
Topics we we can touch on together:
- what is your personal story is around alcohol that you are willing to share?
- how you will answer specific questions that your child is likely to ask?
- what are your preferred boundaries are around alcohol use by your child?
- how to engage your child as effectively as possible.
Workshopping these topics facilitate better quality communications with your kids.
Let’s take alcohol’s allure and power away.
Benefits
This conversation is not just about alcohol. It’s about balancing your kid’s safety and enhancing the connection you have with your kids so that they don’t shut down and walk away. Opening the door to this ongoing conversation will improve the quality of your relationship with your child. We want our kids to keep coming to us for answers to the big questions. It is also about how to address social anxiety, confidence, self-doubt, build resilience and develop identity.
Options for parents
For more information and resources:
- check out my self-guided online course above, or
- book in a free 30 minute discovery call with me to discuss one-on-one options.
Finally…
As a kid, I was socially anxious, full of self doubt and was desperately looking for my social tribe when I first came across alcohol. I was ripe for the picking!
Would this conversation about alcohol and its impacts on our brains and bodies together with tools to manage anxiety and confidence have helped me? Hard to say but I’d be willing to bet it would have.
Having this conversation about alcohol with your child takes alcohol’s power away and reduces its allure.
We want our kids to be informed about what alcohol does to their bodies. We want them to know why they see it being consumed everywhere and why some adults seem to rely on it quite heavily.
This conversation is best initiated early when their beliefs around alcohol are forming so that we can help them understand that they are enough with out it and do not need alcohol to have fun, to socialise, to fit in and be confident.
Our kids need to know alcohol comes with risks.
Isabella is a counsellor and coach specialising in both youth issues and alcohol use and education. Isabella can provide you with support and guidance as you navigate this tricky topic. Contact Isabella to learn more.
