|
The Winning Hand: 21 Questions for
Parents |
| Don’t gamble with your child’s future. Answer these
21 questions for each child in your family age 9 or older. Have your
spouse take it independently of you without discussing
anything until you are both done. Compare your results with
your spouse's. This way the deck will not be stacked against you.
You will then have a consolidated, unified winning hand of
information. Ask each other how objective you are in each of
your answers. |
YES |
NO |
| 1. Is your child exhibiting sudden,
inappropriate mood changes (irritability, unprovoked hostility or
giddiness)? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 2. Is your child developing friendships with older
kids of legal drinking age? |
_____ |
_____ |
| *3. Is your child hanging out with an identified
drinking or drug crowd? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 4. Is there trouble at school - grades dropping,
missing classes, unexplained truancies, especially on Mondays and
Friday's? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 5. Is your liquor supply dwindling? What about your
pills in the medicine cabinet? Do they use considerably more over
the counter medications (cold preparations, pain killers, allergy
meds) then you think is reasonable? |
_____ |
_____ |
| *6. Has anyone (siblings, neighbors, school
officials) tried to tell you your child is using drugs or drinking
too much, whether or not you believe them? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 7. Is your child in trouble with the law, for any
reason? Have they been suspended from school for an alcohol or drug
related incidence, no matter what they said the circumstances
were? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 8. Does your child bad-mouth and/or ridicule
education, television shows, or literature about alcoholism or drug
abuse? |
_____ |
_____ |
| *9. Are there signs of medical or emotional
problems (stomach problems, sudden weight loss or gain, depression,
overwhelming anxiety), suicide talk or gestures? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 10. Is your child beginning to tell lies, cover
his/her tracks, say they are going one place and go to another,
asking other parents or siblings "not to tell" you things? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 11. Do you find obvious signs such as a stash of
bottles, beer cans or drug paraphernalia in their bedroom, basement
or garage? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 12. Do you detect physical signs such as alcohol on
the breath, pupil change, redness of eyes, slurred speech or
staggering, uncontrollable giggling, motor mouth and unprecedented
energy? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 13. Does your child smoke cigarettes and/or eat a
lot of breath mints? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 14. Does your child have flimsy
excuses for not being where s/he said they would be, coming
home late or not at all, for getting into trouble at
school? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 15. Has your child experimented with alcohol and/or
drugs, maybe admitting to "once or twice," but insists that at
parties and other functions they stay away from the kids who are
doing it and in fact, they try to get their friends to stop? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 16. Does your child have a particularly bad
attitude, unprovoked, toward any type of authority figure such as
yourself, the police, school officials? Do they ridicule the DARE
program or TV coverage of teenage alcohol and drug abuse? |
_____ |
_____ |
| *17. Is your child concerned about his or her use
of alcohol, or other drugs, including marijuana? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 18. Is there a heightened secrecy about actions, possessions,
and has your child made their room off limits? Locks on door,
drawers, or book bag? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 19. Is he or she wearing sunglasses indoors and often at
night? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 20. Is s/he going through money (yours or theirs) and you can't
figure out where it's going? |
_____ |
_____ |
| 21. Is your child giving up family and supervised activities
like sports, debating teams, or other supervised activities they
used to enjoy but it would be very difficult to drink or drug at?
They may continue activities that have less supervision and make it
easier to sneak off and smoke or drink. |
_____ |
_____ |
| SCORING: If YES is the answer to 4 or more of
these questions, then there are strong indications that your child
may be in trouble with alcohol, marijuana, or other drugs. If you
answer yes to any one of the starred/bold questions,
you definitely need to seek professional
help. |
