Wasted Youth: Saving Your Child's Life

Wasted Youth: Saving Your Child's Life

Friday, December 19, 2008

filed under: family

If you're a parent and you have a child in college, going off to college or who at some point will go to college, then you need to watch this.

This week we showed you video of 18-year-old freshmen drinking heavily, hooking up, and confessing to doing drugs and keeping secrets from their parents during their first few weeks at college. We also showed you the shocking results of our survey, where we polled 2,500 college freshmen about what really goes on during their first months away from home. We know that talking to kids about this type of risky behavior isn't easy. When do you have the conversation? How young is too young? And what are you supposed to say? Worse still, what if your child is already behaving like one of the teens in our five-part series "Wasted Youth: What Freshman Year In College Is REALLY Like"? Is it too late?

Momlogic pediatrician Dr. Cara Natterson and teen mentor Vanessa Van Petten reveal when to start talking to your kids, the right way to talk to your kids, and what to do if your child is already partying. For more tips, download our Wasted Youth: Printable Discussion Guide: PDF or HTML.

4 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

Haven’t you done six or seven feature series on this already? And is it actually supposed to come as a surprise that oh my lord, college students drink ALCOHOL? And don’t tell their PARENTS that they’re doing it? Who would have thought?

- Anonymous

Posted 12/19/08 09:54 AM

To me what’s surprising isn’t that kids are drinking, it’s how MUCH they are drinking…..I found this kind of alarming.

- chris

Posted 12/19/08 12:42 PM

I think the point is that these are UNDERAGE drinkers who are abusing alcohol to a scary point.

- Renee

Posted 12/19/08 02:18 PM

I hope we all realize that you could just as easily have filmed this at any High School campus?!? Kids are not waiting until college to lie, drink, do drugs and hook-up. Some don’t even wait till high school. As parents we all need to wake up and be aware.

- kathy

Posted 01/31/09 10:00 AM