I watched Intervention last night on A&E. This particular show followed a 40ish recently divorced alcoholic mother and a 20ish boy living at home with his mother who steals to support his meth habit. Turns out the show isn’t all that great (so no link), but it did provoke some interesting thoughts and a brief to-be-continued conversation with The Husband. My absolute biggest fear is that The Kid will have addiction problems.
On the nature side, he is pretty much fucked (sorry for the vulgarity, I must have been inspired by this post). My father and his brother have substance abuse problems (uncle has been in jail many times and his license is permanently revoked for repeated DUIs. Nice.) My mother’s father died of liver cancer/failure, no doubt due to his lifelong alcohol addiction. The Husband and both of his brothers have had substance abuse problems (Not sure they would characterize it that way but I call it as I see it: they have, in fact, all seen a trained specialist to address addiction issues.) Their mother, more than half of her siblings, and her father all have substance abuse problems (mostly alcohol I think). See what I mean?
So, what about the nurture side? That is the question. How do you prevent your kid from being an addict? I don’t know. I mean I know a few things like don’t be an addict yourself, don’t buy drugs for your kids. Check. Check. But what else? I don’t think scare tactics are the way to go. I don’t think weekly testing is the best choice. I certainly don’t think I should do nothing but hope and deny (the approach taken by The Husband’s parents – that didn’t seem to work out now did it?) The Kid is not yet 2 years old. He just learned what an airplane and a waterfall are, so I think I have some time to think about it. I don’t know what to do but I do know that I am scared enough to do something.
