The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Who's Special To Our Kids?

by Dessa Rodeffer
Quill Editor/Publisher

12 April 2000

The world of our young children is black and white. There is no in between.

There are things that are good for you, and things that are not.

There are things that are okay to do, and things that we should never do.

I think Art Linkletter unveiled it first on his TV series, "Kids Say the Darnest things." He let kids be themselves, and they seemed to know exactly what should be and what shouldn't be. They also seemed to know some of the problems adults were causing.

It only goes to prove, kids are listening and watching us more than we think they are.

What happens to our kids after this very knowledgeable age of black and white?

In an alarming report in Galesburg's Sunday paper, The Register-Mail reported that a survey in schools by In touch Prevention and Bridgeway, surveyed over one thousand Knox county teens last year. The report revealed that 45% of the 10th graders, 34% of the 8th graders, and 12% of the 6th graders had alcohol within the past 30 days classified as "regular use."

Aside from alcohol use, 22% of the 10th graders and 13% of the 8th graders said they have used marijuana in the past 30 days.

Most of the young people had not experimented with tobacco in the past year yet 30% of the 10th graders, 22% of the 8th graders, and 6% of the 6th graders in the county said they smoke regularly.

These figures are close to Illinois state average, so we must assume the percentages are close to what we can expect in Henderson and Hancock County, too.

What is most surprising, the survey revealed that in each grade, roughly half of the students said that their parents had not talked to them about alcohol in the past year.

We as parents need to let our children know the black and white of drinking, and exactly where we stand. They need to know there is no gray areas that is safe. For one thing, drinking is illegal in the state of Illinois until age 21.

According to the In Touch coordinator, kids shouldn't be threatened, but they should be told of the punishment and the consequences if they drink. The fact that alcohol is easily available and that most kids get their first drink from home, make parents even more responsible for today's statistics.

The longer a child is left at home, unattended, the more easily a child is bored, and that is why drinks at home should be locked up, the article said. In fact, it is a good time for you to make sure any guns you have are locked up and to have a discussion with your children that neither of these items are allowed to be in their possession.

Alcohol and guns certainly don't mix, and it is hard to think of children left alone for long periods of time with these kinds of things available to them. Kids can become bored, or may be depressed or even angry.

According to a recent seminar BMC Registered Nurses attended in Iowa City in the past month, suicidal kids usually end their lives with handguns their parents had bought to protect themselves with.

The seminar taught that parents should talk to their children about guns. And they should definitely ask parents, before letting their children go to another friend's house, "Do you have guns and alcohol?" and if so, "Are they locked up?"

In teenage drinking, In Touch revealed that the younger children start, the more likely they are to have an addiction when they are older.

One out of 10 people who drink become alcoholics, but if they start in high school, the number jumps to 4 out of 10. That is why the legal drinking age isn't until age 21.

The report said that the liver which processes alcohol isn't fully formed until a person is in the early 20s.

If children start out with learning there is black and white, good and bad, right and wrong, when is it they learn there is gray. I think it is when they start observing how we act from what we have taught them.

Like the 107 oldest practicing doctor told her patients, "If you are having trouble with your children, just look in the mirror," I tell them. "They are imitating you," she told a CNN reporter.

A Burlington teacher told me that they were having trouble with a Junior High boy who was always being sent to the office for his bad mouth. They finally called his father in about the situation and the first thing his dad said to the principal and teachers who were waiting to meet with him was, "What the ÑÑÑÑ did you want to see me for?" She said, everyone figured out the problem with the student pretty quickly.

When it comes down to it, our children think we are pretty special, no matter what the rest of society thinks. And the scary part about that is: that's a lot of responsibility.

The grade school children at Southern this week were allowed to invite up to 4 people that were special to them to visit school. My husband was teasing our grandson when he found out he was inviting us saying, "Why didn't you invite Mark McGwire, or Michael Jordan?"

It's pretty overwhelming to know, out of all the people our Grandson knows, or has read about, he has chosen us as someone special in his life.

But, that also comes with a whole lot of responsibilities, and I just pray we can cover all the bases for his sake. Pedestals are pretty hard to stand on for very long.