as told to me by the boy's mom
When my 16 year old got good grades, I permitted him to drink a glass of beer with dinner because that’s what he said he wanted. Ye gads, who was the child in that family?!!! Later, in the teenage rehab program we entered, I learned that I was an “enabler”. I had been unknowingly supporting destructive behavior I never would have permitted had I been thinking straight.
I was not alone. There were over 400 families in the program we enrolled Mike in and every one of them had denied the problem and denied what they saw because they didn’t have a clue how to spot the signs of alcohol abuse in a kid. Sometimes the dynamics of the family were so chaotic that parents contributed to the causes of their child’s alcohol or drug abuse. And, I think, because many parents, siblings, friends, or teachers had no idea how to handle it if the child was abusing alcohol or drugs, they – and I -- chose to close our baby blues. We were clueless; we were helpless; and we were terrified. We learned haphazardly, one little clue or bit of information at a time, the hard way.
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