Talk to your teen about drinking

By Tom Daykin

"The first six to eight weeks of a college student's freshman year are perhaps the most dangerous when it comes to excessive drinking, according to Susan Crowley, University of Wisconsin-Madison director of prevention services. Students are on their own for the first time in their young lives, and they often don't have friends or family members to keep their behavior in line."

"'Then they drink way more than they thought they were going to drink,' said Crowley, who spoke to the Journal Sentinel about how parents should talk to their children about drinking. Here are some excerpts from that conversation..."

"'I think where parents can be effective is to point out that there are consequences to underage drinking. Their academic records can be held, they can get a citation. . . . Students often don't think about how they can be vulnerable to crime when they're drinking...'"

Full article available at http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=809279