Parenting can be scary!

Up until now, the worst moment has been when my daughter asked "mommy, how did you have me?" (BTW: I'm sticking with my stork story, so help me out here)

Now I'm terrified about keeping her away from drugs!

As a person who doesn't like to take medications, I finally reached the point today where I HAD to have something to get rid of this sinus headache. Gotta love Virginia during pollen season! I just discovered that I can't walk into CVS and buy ANY product that contains Pseudoephedrine. Apparently this stuff can be used to make methamphetamine. So I start reading up on it... scary stuff! But then again, for me, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Came across a site designed to help parents learn how to address drug use. The Parent Partnership

I know MY parents never talked to me about drugs, or sex for that matter! I'm sure that's why at 16, with the help of a friend, I DEMOLISHED a fifth of bourbon. Never mind that I was SUPPOSED to be home watching my siblings. Parents came home found me passed out in the bathroom. Punishment? My father dragged me out shopping for the entire next day, dry heaving. I don't believe I touched alcohol again until college.

Fast forward to my most recent cruise, I'm pretty sure I had about 6 beers in a week... more than I've probably had in the past year (with the exception of the day of Buffett concerts)... in Jamaica I absolutely fell in love with Red Stripe beer, so when I got home, I bought a 6 pack (5 are still in the fridge 3 weeks later). My daughter flipped out! Turns out, in her sweet little innocent 9 year old brain, parents who drink shoot their children. Whoa! Not sure where this came from, and while I'm not going to encourage that thought, her obvious fear of drinking might help me out later.

Smoking, don't think I'm going to have to worry there, either. Up until a year and a half ago, when my mother quit smoking, my daughter was constantly on her case to quit. I grew up with a smoker, and have never smoked, so, fingers crossed, she won't either.

That just leaves drugs, and sex, but since her classmates go around telling each other that kissing makes babies... I think I'm okay for a bit on that too! (Gotta love Catholic schools).

Drugs, can't use the "I didn't do them, so don't you either" approach, so I'm left with thinking about just keeping her so busy she doesn't have time for friends? Not going to work is it? For the time being, since she's a competitive figure skater, most of her free time is spent at the ice rink, and I've seen no evidence of drugs being all that commonplace in figure skating, but naive me, could be COMPLETELY off base here.