It’s that time again. Schools all over the country are getting ready to be in full swing. Thousands of young people will darken the door of college for the first time. This new found freedom is excited and overwhelming all the same time and can be dangerous if your child isn’t aware of somethings. Spring Break is just one week long and only happens once every school year, but can hold fatal consequences for your young person, if you choose not to educate them and let them know how you feel about their possible choices during this week of liberty.
Drugs and Alcohol
When Spring Break gets here, the majority of students head to the beaches. The parties are massive! The alcohol seems to be as abundant as the ocean their drinking by and the drugs that float around are in no short supply either. A lot of parents have done their best to raise their child to abstain from drugs and alcohol, but we all know, because we were that age once, that knowing and experiencing are two different things. Most kids feel an overwhelming need to experience things for themselves. Don’t hold anything back when educating your kids. Allow them to know about the gruesome details of a hangover and alcohol poisoning. Tell them every detail about what happens when you overdose and how easy it is to do so.
Abstinence
Ok. Let’s get real. It’s 2017. 97% of all college students have already had sex. We are talking more about the responsibility, here. Spring Break is a time and place where most kids don’t give a second thought to who the spend the night with. It’s “part of the experience.” Especially your young men. What you want to get across to your college student, and hopefully have been teaching them for a while already, is that they are responsible to themselves and a possible future spouse for what they do with their body. Inform them of the STD threats and remind them of the emotional attachments that go along with sex.
Personal Safety
As with traveling anywhere, your college aged child needs to know how to travel safely.
Make sure you sit down with them and discuss simple common sense safety tips and don’t be intimidated by the “Mom, I’ll be fine,” speech. Tell them anyway. One mistake could leave them stranded with no cash or form of ID. Even worse, it could get them kidnapped, hurt, or killed.
Make sure to cover the how to talk to strangers topic. Never go anywhere alone. It’s much more of a task for a robber or kidnapper to attack a group. Most of the time, they will label it too much of a risk and move on. Make sure they know how to handle their money, as well. Don’t count to see what you have left in the sight of the public. It raises the brows of those who are looking to score a little extra cash the wrong way.
In the end, your son or daughter will have a blast exploring the new world of college, but you can help make it safer by educating them on the hazards that await them. They will be more aware and you will be able to rest knowing that you did everything you could to prepare them.
