Spring Break Confessions: Part 1

Spring Break Confessions: Part 1

Monday, April 7, 2008

filed under: tween & teen logic

Teens go for the fun, sun, and surf ... and many add massive amounts of drinking, drugs, and dangerous sex when they get there.

These spring break confessions are shocking testimonials from real teens for whom going away means going to scary extremes--getting drunk and high, hooking up with strangers--and, too often, ending up arrested, sexually assaulted, or clinging to life in the hospital.

Although stories like Natalee Holloway's make front page news, author, pediatrician and ML contributor Dr. Cara Natterson says most teens can't anticipate consequences because, "their frontal lobe, the C.E.O. of their brain, isn't fully developed yet," which is why so many teens still live like there's no tomorrow.

So, how can you keep your child safe? "The most important thing is to set limits," says Dr. Natterson. "If you know the situation will be wild, don't let him or her go. It is equally important to keep talking to your child. Bluntly tell him or her what worries you. Use short-term examples like: 'You won't to be able to play sports next week,' instead of talking about long-term addiction or eventual loss of brain-cells."

"While it is true that the chemistry of the teen brain, with its impulse-intensive responses, will often win out over your words of warning--your words are still valuable," says Dr. Natterson. "Every time you sit with your child and have that talk, it's another piece of hay on the haystack. Eventually the stack gets big enough that you are influencing your child's decisions." Ready to get started? Download our discussion guide: HTML or PDF.

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Coming tomorrow: Shocking teen confessions about spring break sex.

169 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

Its ridiculous that college students speak of themselves as being kids. The whole point of growing up is to grow up. going on spring break is not a way to step into adult hood, it’s just a time where people make stupid decisions that can cause them to stress even more after the break. I’m 19 and have no intensions of going on spring break. I have to ask for those who choose to be irresponsible. What the heck is the matter with you? Do you know how stupid you sound. Your future Doctors and Lawyers, and Teachers. I mean what is the point of having a life if you don’t value it. So if you died tomorrow you want the last thing you did to be getting high with friends or having ananymous sex with a stranger. Your truly F*** up it’s sad. You complain that you want a break from school and then you feel even worse when coming off of break. I’m not showing any remorse for those that had bad experiences on spring break because one little bad choice can create an even bigger one.

- nesh

Posted 04/20/08 04:57 PM

wow. i dont care! agree?

- Carli

Posted 06/03/08 09:51 PM

As a parent I think this article is written by and for people who have trouble cutting the umbilical cord. If your children are 18 they are legally adults, and the answer is not to try and stop them from going on a spring break trip. Because guess what: they can go whether you want them to or not. Hopefully you didn’t raise them to be idiots and they will survive the experience.

- jjack

Posted 11/20/08 07:56 PM

its to late the world has to many people now… this will thin the herd …and leave behind stronger and smarter survivors …. sad isnt it

- joe collis

Posted 11/25/08 10:39 PM

Brian, you are right trying things out when you can is fine, but getting so drunk you have alcohol poisoning ,you pass out and your friend inform you that you had sex with like 6 guys and you don’t remember it. We all know the rape rates in those spring break town are outrageously high people are doing HARM to themselves not just trying things out. Doing HARM to yourself isn’t ok I’m sure one or more of those dozens of girl you slept with would have been too drunk to do anything about your advances and even if they tried you were to drunk, high or both to notice their objections so technically you raped them more over I’m sure you got plenty of them drunk with the intention of having sex with them also rape. You disgust me and I hope you never have kids especially boys I would hate for you to pass on your doctrines of the objectification a subjugation of women.

- lalasha

Posted 12/16/08 04:33 PM

It amazes me how immature and irresponsible today’s teenagers are. It is the fault of their parents, who want to their friends and never taught them discipline and never said no.

- earl

Posted 02/28/09 01:51 PM

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Posted 03/27/09 06:51 AM

After hitting the previous two I fell down on this one. ,

- BadGirl31

Posted 10/22/09 09:57 AM

The problem is that online advertising doesn’t pay enough to support the costs of news reporting. ,

- Merlin52

Posted 10/23/09 06:56 AM

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