Brain-dump time: A friend from college posted this on Facebook today. She’s a new mom and a fantastic person and I’m forever grateful that I got to spend time with her.
I know I can’t completely relate because I’m not, and if I have anything to say about it never will be, a mother, but I have to disagree with this article that she posted.
My parents smoked pot before I was born. Apparently they smoked a LOT of pot. I’ve heard this from various family members and guess what! It didn’t make me think less of my parents or make me want to become a stoner. They were just mid-twenties kids and why not? They will never admit that they were heavy into reefer though and that’s what’s bothersome. It’s inauthentic. It’s fake. It’s bullshit.
I don’t think parents should ever try to gloss over their past lives to their children. First of all: it glamorizes whatever “devious” activity they want to try whether it be smoking pot, or drinking a beer, or whatever. I mean, kids usually only want to do what their parents don’t want them to do. If you’re a parent and you were like, “Yeah, sure, kid, have a beer. I have a beer from time to time too.” My guess is they’d probably be like, “Oh cool, this is chill,” or “Ew, parents are okay with it – it must not be cool.”
There will always be people who become addicted, but regardless of whether they try beer for the first time in high school or in college, they will find out, and the sooner the better in my opinion.
I could go on and on, but I think it’s a much better option to be real with your kids than to try to play it off like you were some Straight Edge Mary Fucking Sunshine when you were a child/teenager/whatever. Because if they have two brain cells to rub together, they’ll know you’re full of shit anyways.
That Girl Allison 