Don’ts for Parents

1. DON’T confront you youngster about drinking while he or she is under the influence.
2. DON’T make excuses to your spouse, family, friends, or school authorities for your youngster’s drinking.
3. DON’T take responsibility for your child’s drinking problem.
4. DON’T accept as normal behavior a drunken son or daughter who comes home and destroys the house or creates havoc within the family.
5. DON’T nag or scream at an adolescent about drinking.
6. DON’T clean up your alcohol-abusing child’s messes and predicaments.
7. DON’T let yourself be so ruled by the kid’s alcohol behavior that you let it pull your own behavior down, too.
8. DON’T view your child as lacking backbone or will power.
9. DON’T assume your child doesn’t love you because of the way he or she acts when drinking.
10. DON’T be angry with your alcoholic child, if you can help it.
11. DON’T be patronizing or indulgent.
12. DON’T play amateur detective-following your offspring around the town to see what he or she is into is a waste of your time and your strength.
13. DON’T give an alcohol-abusing youngster any money, except for a minimal allowance.
14. DON’T make threats you’re not prepared to back up.

Alibrandi, Tom. Young Alcoholics. Minneapolis. Comp Care Publications, 1978. Pp 79-91.