Just Say No!

A couple of weeks ago Laurence's school sent a letter home about a week-long program they were planning for last week to keep kids away from drugs & alcohol. Basically they were asking for student participation by dressing a certain way to go along with the slogan of the day. It sounded like a good idea, but I figured with Laurence being just in Kindergarten I wouldn't go thru all of this with him...give it a few years, right? Well, on Wednesday of last week when we were walking home from the bus stop he said, "Mom, why were some of the kids were dressed mismatched today?" I remembered "Drugs and Alcohol are No Match for Me" being one of the daily slogans, so I started in on a very simplified explanation. Surprisingly (no, really not surprisingly), he had a ton of questions, but he did seem to understand the concept. He said he'd heard of alcohol before, and knew that was "like wine & beer and stuff," and I said, "Yep, drinks for adults only." But he was confused about the drugs part. "Like what we get at the Target Pharmacy?" he asked, when I started the explanation with "drugs include pills & medicines..." I said, "Well, yes, but there's also drugs you can smoke, sniff in your nose, give with a shot, and people use them because they think it will be fun or make them feel good, but mostly they make people make really stupid decisions and do things that can hurt themselves or other people." That made sense to him. Not a bad explanation, hey? I was repeating this story to some friends today and they were impressed with my ability to think on my feet, and asked if I was available to talk to their kids, too. Why not? Though we didn't talk about compensation...

Anyway, clearly my little talk with Laurence last week had a big impact. Thursday he wore red (though I can't remember the slogan), and Friday he dressed in a Packers t-shirt to "team up against drugs and alcohol." So, we're off to a good start. It really sunk in, based on the conversation he had with some friends that were over the other night. They asked what he'd been doing at school and after some hesitation, I prompted him to talk about "mismatch day," etc. They seemed impressed and he proceeded to tell them, "It was to keep kids away from drugs and....." Then he looks at me, puzzled. I said, "That's a big word, do you remember? Starts with al..." and he shouts, "allergies!" (Insert giggles here. I tried not to laugh, really I did, but how could I not?) "Alcohol," I said. He smiled and said, "Oh yeah, alcohol. That's stuff only adults can drink. You know, like soda and stuff." Like I said, let's wait a few years to introduce this topic. Now hand me that Diet Pepsi!