There are so many things in the life of our teens that compete for their attention. During this month, we have talked about substance abuse and the effects it can have on individuals. In this episode we look at at vaping and how it has become popular among youth but the dangers it can cause. Brittany Britsch from the Bear River Health Department is here to help us understand what WE can do to help. From why teens start to how to help prevent Teens from experimenting. Brittany shares great insight on the topic of teen Vaping.
Listen here:
Can't Listen? Read the Transcription Here:
Jen: Welcome to the Parents Place podcast with Hilary and Jen.
Hilary: OK, welcome to the Parents Place podcast. We, thank you for tuning in and listening and being a part of our audience. For those of you that are regulars, we love you and we appreciate you and for those of you that are new to our podcast. We're glad that you found us.
Jen: And we love you too.
Hilary: Yes, we love you too! It’s a new love but a love that will grow. Yes, take advantage of our episodes that we've had and had in the past, and we're excited that you found us in our new audience member. So, we have a guest with us today and we're so excited. This is a local individual here from our health department. So, this is Brittany Britch and we're really thrilled that she is here to speak with us given that it is October, and we are focusing on focusing in on substance abuse and abuse awareness and prevention and she is the resident guru and expert of that being that she's at the health department. So, I'm going to turn it over to her. If you want to tell us a little bit about you and what you do and how you stumbled upon this profession.
Brittany: Yeah. So I have a bachelor's degree in public health from Brigham Young University, Idaho, and I'm working, as you said at the Bear River Health Department as a prevention specialist, and I'm also a mother of three teenagers and one soon to be teenager. So I feel like.
Jen: Wow. So you have 4 teenagers.
Brittany: Yeah.
Jen: Yeah, bless your heart.
Brittany: Thank you. We're teenagers ranging from 10, well, my soon to be is 10 right now. So he'll, he's a preteen and my oldest is 19. So, all in the ranges of that. And I got into public health because I wanted to make a positive change in the community. And substance prevention is all about protecting our children for the future and strengthening our communities. And what's really great about the work of substance prevention is that it's so much more cost effective to prevent a person from becoming addicted to a substance than to actually treat the addiction.
Jen: I was just talking about that the other day because it's the same with abuse. It's cheaper to do intervention than prevention. And the funny thing is our government doesn't like to fund intervention or prevention. They like to fund that intervention.
Hilary: And they don't realize that they're paying more for that versus the opposing.
Jen: Well, they're paying more for it, and so is the person. Yeah, it it's a lifelong thing. So, I mean, their whole life has changed so let's prevent.
Hilary: That we like it yes. And Brittany remind us, because clearly some of our audience is local here in the valley and others are not and others are worldwide. So, are there health departments in all areas in all states or is it just depending on your location?
Brittany: There are health departments all over the country. Sometimes they they're associated with one county, the Bear River Health Department is actually associated with three counties with the Rich County, Cache Valley, or Cache County and the Box Elder county.
Hilary: OK, OK. But there should be some whether it has that, that name or a different name, there should be some health department fairly close to your location, yes, absolutely being in the US. OK, perfect. And then just as a reminder, tell us about some of the things that you guys do at the health department for those that may not be familiar.
Brittany: So, the health department is so much more than just inspections and permits and immunizations, we do a lot of, especially in the Community work that I do. It's a lot of health promotion and teaching the community about how to be healthy and different ways to improve your health and prevent illness and sickness in the community.
Hilary: And you guys have done, I mean, I've seen billboards and commercials and social media like you guys are wide, like widespread. There's a lot that you guys are have out there when it comes to content.
Brittany: Yes, absolutely and we also we work with the state, the state health Department also does a lot and we work in tandem with them to try and maximize our reach and maximize who we're reaching and the messages that we're sending out to people.
Hilary: Perfect. That's awesome. Do you do anything virtually for those that maybe are in more of our rural locations that may not be incredibly close to a site?
Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. That's the great thing. One of the few good things that have come out of COVID is that a lot of things, a lot of things are going virtually and that's really helpful because I feel like it's able to reach a larger number of people who maybe don't have the transportation or the time to get to the health department or to get to where they need to be. So, there's virtual classes and lots of online just visiting the website and seeing the services that we have, you can sign up for classes and all sorts kinds of things that you need.
Hilary: Prefect. I love that you said one of the few things. Like, yeah, there's a lot of things we didn't like, but there were some gems that came about as a result of that.
Jen: Lessons we were able to learn and like. Oh well, that's a better way of doing things.
Hilary: Well, that's awesome. Well, so we, as I mentioned, we want to focus in on substance use awareness and we specifically want to have a conversation about teens and what that looks like for teens and given that you are surrounded by teens at all times day, right. You know, you know all the skills and the techniques. So, let's start with prevention in general. So, what does prevention look like when it comes to our youth?
Brittany: So the research shows us that if we want to have prevention in our Youth. We need to look at the risk factors in the four most influential areas in their in their community, so that will be through Community, family, school and individual or peer groups. And if you can address some of these risk factors, then you can have a better chance of preventing substance use. And then on the other hand, there are also protective factors that can protect a youth from problem behavior. Prevention is lessening those risk factors and then improving or strengthening those predictive factors, OK. And then with that two prime approach, we can give our youth the best chance for a successful future in preventing substance use.
Hilary: Do you know, those four, those four areas, do you tend to find that one and not as more important, but I mean with our youth, do they tend to gravitate towards peers versus family versus community or is it an equal balance of having all three of those things in their life.
Brittany Yeah. So it's there, there's as far as risk factors go. We see that family is a big influence in determining how successful children are. And one of the examples is if a parent has a favorable attitude towards substance use, then more likely than not that the child is going to have a more favorable attitude toward substance use. Some other examples, like in the community is the availability of drugs. How easy is it for a youth to get a hold of substances, how many businesses or how many drugs are actually out there in the community. When it comes to like risk factors in the school like Is this, does the students have a lack of commitment to school? How engaged are they in school? And then with individual or peer it's looking at the youth, the youth's attitude towards drug use or their peers attitudes towards drug us and that could be determinant of whether they are would use substance use. But family, we've seen is the biggest influence in a child's life.
Hilary: OK.
Jen: We have those kind of it's a generational thing and it's those generational things that are so hard to break. Like if they grew up in a home that used substances more than likely, and it just is that domino effect throughout generation is so hard.
Hilary: But I also love on the flip side. That parents can be reminded that they have a strong, active voice in their child's life. Because I think so often as parents were like, they're just listening to their friends, like it doesn't really matter what I say. It's in one ear out the other. And so, I love that you remind us that, no, they are listening to us. They are watching us, those values that we're instilling in our home are important. So, I think that that's a good reminder.
Jen: And maybe we can break it. I mean the ripple effect is so great of going down of positivity. So yeah,
Hilary: Very cool. I love that. So let's talk a little bit specifically about our youth and if you have some insights into our area in general or maybe not nationally. So we know that vaping is becoming a big thing.
Brittany: Absolutely yes.
Hilary: I mean I don't wanna, I don't know if you have statistics off the top of your head, but like, how prevalent is that now compared to what it was, 5,10, even around 15 years ago I don't even know.
Brittany: I do know that vaping was initially brought on the scene because they thought that it was going to be a great tool to help stop people from smoking. But they've, actually the data is still not, it's not 100% clear on what it is, but they've shown, at least in youth, that E cigarettes have a very high level of nicotine and so it's they're showing the exact opposite with youth. That youth, what will happen is they will, they will get curious about the flavor and they'll have a friend that uses it, and because they have heard, oh, it's not dangerous or it's not a problem, then they'll be just curious and they'll try it. And because that nicotine is so addictive, it changes the way that their brain functions. And they just get hooked really quickly. And so, it's showing that each pod can contain as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. So, one pod equals one pack of cigarettes.
Hilary: And how long is that like? And that's when you, I was going to say you got to explain the term for me, so what does it mean by a pod?
Brittany: Yeah. So one pod, it's going to hold some, some juice or some vape liquid.
Jen: Do they smoke that all at? Once or vape that all at once
Brittany: I don’t believe so, I would hope not because that is a whole, because that contains a whole pack of cigarettes, which is a lot of nicotine and the nicotine is harmful for developing brains. It affects attention, learning, mood, impulse control and memory, which as those brains are developing. If you introduce that nicotine in there, those brains start to become hardwired to create that nicotine, and the research shows that teens vapes are almost seven times as likely to go on and smoke traditional cigarettes, and so it's just it's incredibly dangerous, especially for those developing brains.
Jen: And it's affecting those brains that are already taking longer to develop. I mean, it's that frontal cortex that takes longer anyways, but here, now let's introduce vaping, which is going to stunt that or reconnect it even more.
Hilary: Boy, that is so interesting because you know, like, like you said earlier, I think when vaping came out, it was it was advertised as. It's not that, it's better than smoking. So it's not going to do a lot of harm to you. And it's interesting that we have seen in such a short period of time. How false that was. Yeah, but.
Jen: There's a there's a vaping documentary I believe on Netflix that I've been itching to watch, and I started a little bit of it and it was actually college students that came up with it and so. Yeah, you need to watch it. It's called vaping and it is on Netflix
Hilary: I'm assuming it's a I mean, that's vaping in general. You see how that has that effect on the teen's brains. But I'm assuming all substance abuse kind of have that same. I mean, with their developing brain, you probably see some of the side effects as being more detrimental than if an adult right, OK.
Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. Because adults brains, the research is showing that brains develop fully developed by the time they're 25 and there, even is some suggestion that it's more like 30 years old that a little bit later. And so when you introduce a brain altering chemical like nicotine or an opioid or something like that. It changes the way that brain is developing and hard and makes it want to crave it more and it actually I heard somebody say that teens brains are hardwired for it. That, you know, once you start introducing those things, it just wants to keep going for that.
Jen: Look, it probably affects that dopamine, that pleasure system as well, which kids are, I mean, they pretty much. Yeah. And so, you're introducing those chemicals that are changing that pleasure system and needing more and more to get that pleasure of whatever substance you're using.
Brittany: And, especially where it's the prefrontal cortex in there is where all the decision making and the and the planning happens and teens are not able to see around corners, they're not able to think about how is this going to affect me 5-10 years down the road. Whereas adults it's a little bit different. And we do think about the ramifications of something like substance use.
Hilary: Well, and then you think about how teens in that stage of life, they always feel invincible like that. Other people will have a problem with quitting. But I won't have a problem with quitting. It's this, you know, like, you can't, you can't hurt me sort of an idea.
Jen: Yeah, I can stop just like that.
Hilary: I may hear about the dangers, but those are dangers. That won't be a problem for me.
Brittany: Yeah, that's actually a very common misconception is that a lot of people think that vaping is safe. Yeah, and it really isn't. And so they'll just try vaping because they're curious and they don't realize that how addictive it is and what it's changing in them.
Hilary: OK, what other, misconceptions do you now have in regards to substance use?
Brittany: Yes, well, kind of the how teens are, you know, teens are saying what can never happen to me. I think it's also adults can say that that you know, it can never happen to me or not my child. Of course not, my child. The research is showing that children across all spans are having this problem and nicotine is the third most addictive substance next to heroin and cocaine and opioid dependence can happen in as little as five days. So it's really we need to be really careful with these addictive substances.
Jen: I remember, when vaping first came out, That they could get. Oh, what was it? I can't remember what wording they used. It was like the oils from weed and smoke their weed through a vape can. Is that still possible?
Brittany: I believe that it's still possible, in Utah that is not legal. Not a legal thing, but.
Jen: But then you're just smoking that and you're no one really knows. It's because you're vaping it instead of smoking.
Hilary: I was also always told as well too, that, like, secondhand smoke is not hurtful with vaping. Have we changed that as well, too or is that is that harmful to prevent that second-hand?
Brittany: And the research is still out on that. There's not enough out there to know, but there is research to support that it's more than just the water vapor. A lot of people say, oh, it's just water vapor. It's not a big deal, but they're showing that there's a lung disease that is coming from this. They think that there are some hard metals that are going into their lungs and other things that can be very damaging, it's just I think it's because it's so new that they're still trying to research and get some really good solid data that we can go off of.
Jen: That's such a hard thing to wait for that data. It's all that people are using that substance and.
Hilary: Assuming it's the lesser of the two evils.
Jen: But it is important that we have good data and good research.
Hilary: Well, it'll be interesting to hear what we hear. Like what comes about from that then. All right, this is kinda scary.
Brittany: Well, yeah. Well and just the vaping alone at 99% of the vapes out there, have nicotine in it and nicotine alone is a dangerous substance. It's dangerous for developing brains and and I think that for me that's enough to say. You know what? I'm gonna stay away from that.
Jen: I'm the same way. I watch a lot of documentaries and I don't know why, but I love to watch like things like on the substances and things like that. Probably just to curiosity, but also to educate myself and to see how some of these substances are created. Like why on this green Earth would anyone put that into their bodies? Because cocaine is mixed with gasoline and I'm like and that's going straight into your body. Yeah. But yeah, I just don't.
Brittany: It's very dangerous.
Hilary: So given that we are a team prevention here at both agencies. Let's talk about what parents can do to help these youth. What can we do to prevent substance use and what can we watch for to know if our child or a team that we know has a potential problem? What? What? Can we do?
Brittany: Yeah, that's a great question. I think one of the best things that parents can do is to actually sit down and talk to their kids about it and talk to them early and often about it. It's important to set clear expectations and talk about why vaping and other substance use is harmful for their brain and for their body, and to let their children know of what they think is good for them and what's not good for them. The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends that you talk to your kids about underage drinking as early as nine years old. At age 9 is when they start to develop those opinions outside the home and parents can have a great influence and they don't realize how much their parents don't realize how much of an influence they have on their children just by talking to them. And also it is important to talk to teens early about the misuse of prescription drugs. It has shown that parents or grandparents who talk to their teens about prescription drug use are 42% less likely to abuse prescription drugs than teens who do not, so it shows that there is some protection there just by talking to them and letting them know about it. And keeping an open dialogue with their children and parents are in an influential part in children's lives and in order to do that, I think it's important to remember to build a relationship with your children, spending time doing things with them, that the things that they want to do, building that bond when you're building that strong bond with your children. They're more likely to just talk with you if something is going.
Jen: On it's easier to have those hard conversions. When you do have that attachment, that strong bond with your kids.
Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. And then I think finally the last thing that parents can do is set a good example like when parents are tobacco free and don't use substances. Not only is it reducing the children's risk to exposure to secondhand exposure. But then also it's setting a good example and it's never too late to quit and there is help out there to help them with that.
Hilary: So, I imagine that is one area that I try to keep an open conversation with my kids and with my with my teen as well too, but that is one conversation we haven't quite tackled yet, and so I'm thinking to myself. I'm fairly oblivious when it comes to this world and so do you have any suggestions as to like where I can look to become to gain more knowledge to feel more informed before I start this conversation? Are there helpful websites, places to go, places that you would suggest Parents can refer to for accurate information?
Brittany: Yeah, there is so much information out there. It's really important to get the right information and the accurate information. Some of the information you can go to parents empowered, and that's where it talks to kids about drinking. And how to talk to your kids about drinking and how to start those conversations. Another important one is know your script and that's all about opioid prevention, opioid abuse prevention and knowing not only knowing what to talk to you about with your doctor when you get an opioid prescription, but to how to talk to your teens about it and how to prevent them. And then there's a really great tool kit called Catch my breath, a parents toolkit about how to talk to them about vaping and smoking, and how to prevent them from doing that. And then there's all sorts of kind of ways to help kids to stop if they are using substances. If your child is vaping or using substances and you find out, they may need help quitting. Sometimes you may it, it may not be enough to just take it away. You may need to seek help, and there's a really great website, mylifemyquit.org, and that's geared specifically for teens to help them stop using substances and then for adults waytoquit.org is very helpful for adult. So some of the signs, if you think that your child might be or to kind of see, you know, is to watch your children for like changes in mood. Check in with your children and spend time with them. If you're noticing that they seem off for unusual behavior, increased irritability, impulsivity, headaches, nausea that's a sign. Noticed their spending habits. Vaping can be expensive. Substance use can be expensive. You know, if they're spending an unusual amount of money on something that could be the possibility and then also vaping has they come in lots of flavors. And if you're noticing a fruity, menthol, minty smell or sweet smell around your child's in their room or in their car, that might be something to look for another thing is you can go to these websites that I mentioned earlier, and parents can familiarize themselves with what vaping devices look like sleeping devices. They look like normal devices. They look like a highlighter or a pen or a little cartridge or a USB port. And so, if you familiarize yourself with what they could look like if you notice them around your child, you're like hey, you know, and bring up that conversation. It's not always the easiest conversation to talk about with your teen. That they're vitally important to talk about with them.
Jen: That's super interesting that they're highlighters and pens and the USB. I mean. What age group are they targeting?
Hilary: Exactly.
Jen: I mean an adult care less what it looks like. For the most part, it's the kids that they're look at this, this is normal. You can hide it from your parent, you know.
Brittany: Yeah. And you know, the interesting thing is, recently, a few years ago, when there was a big campaign on Instagram and TikTok and gearing towards children, it made it look like this grassroots movement. It made it look like hey, we're all teens, we're cool and what a lot of teens didn't realize is those were the tobacco companies, very cleverly marketing their products right towards children and there has been some legislation that's directly marketed towards Jewel, but it hasn't been able to be over the whole umbrella of all of the vacant products and so it's affected one company but not all of them. And so, there's still those products out there that are very geared towards youth.
Jen: How old do you have to be now to purchase like a vaping device? Is it 18 or is it 21?
Brittany: 21, I'm going to check just really quick.
Hilary: That was one of those I am oblivious to .
Brittany: I'm pretty sure it is 21.
Jen: Is it all connected with alcohol, so it's all just 21.
Brittany: Yeah. In order to purchase or possess of an electronic cigarette or vaping products, you have to be 21 years or older.
Jen: So, it is like, where are these kids getting them? But it's the people that turn a blind eye and stop it.
Brittany: It's yeah, it's. It's easy to get them online. You can get them online, friends and family if they have an older sibling or someone at school. They're very, I know that at school they're confiscated. They're not allowed to be at school and or they get it in other ways. I know that in the, they do compliance checks, but I don't know if they do that for tobacco. They should. They make sure that the there are, there are people at the health department that they make sure that businesses are not selling to minors and make sure that they're following the rules.
Hilary: That you know of, I is there a lot of education happening in a school setting or have we moved away from that and made the assumption that like all these conversations are happening in the home, do they do they have programs in school.
Brittany: So, one of the things and it's a little controversial, is the sharp data, the sharp survey. Just this last spring there was a question added about vaping because they were noticing that it was it was becoming a hot topic and so we don't have data on previous years. We only have it on 2023. But there is a push to have more conversations. About whether it's, you know to address this in the future, and so it's something that in Cache Valley and Box elder and in Rich County that and at the health department, we're really trying to help prevent the use of it and help these kids know the dangers of vaping.
Hilary: I'm just thinking and you can correct me, Brittany, cause you would know better than I, but remember, growing up having these DARE programs that were all about drug abuse and substance use prevention. And I think we've kind of taken a different approach and kind of moved away from that, at least in the valley. And I mean not that I always 100% firmly believe that those topics would be happening in the home but I'm always like it's a great backup to have it in the school too, because it doesn't hurt here that conversation more than once.
Brittany: Yeah, absolutely the problem with the DARE programs and the things that used to be that we've moved away from DARE. Their tactics were a lot of fear and so, and there the research is showing that fear based in education is not very helpful. And so, they're trying to teach them that, you know, look, this is what happens to your brain. This is what your brain is doing and this is why we can't have this. And it, you know, a lot of DARE was stay away from it at all costs. When you see a drug dealer, you say no and that's not going to be very helpful because our "drug dealers”, in reality are, hey, this is my friend. My friend is using this. Nothing's wrong with him. He's not drugged out. So why is it a problem that I use it? And so it's more of an education based of, you know, we need to be more of an or of teaching them why it's important to stay away from these substances and. Why we want to keep ourselves clean from it.
Jen: Yeah, it's just looking at your sticker on your water bottle and it says “mental health matters”. And I'm sure that that plays a huge part in using substance abuse or using substance. Because they're trying to mask hard feelings that they may be having.
Brittany: Yeah, that's absolutely one of the one of the risk factors and one of the protective factors is improving that having some of the protective factors that I talked about earlier is to help prevent substance use is. You know when children have a belief in the future, when you know they have self efficacy or believe that they can do things or you know having a self-determination type of thing. Those kind of things, those protective factors help prevent substance use and it definitely goes hand in hand that when you have poor mental health or you're struggling, you're feeling bullied at school or you feel like nobody likes you or you're not feeling safe at school. Those children can very easily turn to substances to try and get that dopamine rush, that dopamine rush that they crave and they need. And instead of getting it in positive, healthy ways. And so, there's there is a big push here in Cache Valley and in at the health department to try and encourage those healthier behaviors and improving mental health to help prevent that.
Hilary: I feel like you've given us so much good information and I'm so glad that we're having this conversation and the resources that you mentioned earlier, we will make sure we include all those resources in our show notes, the websites that you suggested. So as we as we kind of come to a close with our discussion. You've shared some fantastic resources, but any final tips that you would offer advice to our listeners that you'd want to take to take from this conversation?
Brittany: Yeah. I think the biggest part is how much parents influence children's lives and how integral they are in their children's lives and a lot more than they think. That parents can have the influence on the choices that their children's make, and they can do this through three things by spending that time with their children, bonding with them, doing things with their children, like developing that relationship, and then also setting appropriate boundaries and rules. Letting their children know what they feel is appropriate, what isn't appropriate, and then also be involved and engaged in their children's. Lives and monitor what they're doing and what kind of choices their children are making. Know where your children are, know who your children's friends are, know what they're doing and what their interests are, and being engaged member of their lives.
Hilary: I think so often in parenting were like searching for this new fantastic like answer that we've never heard before, right? Like the magic formula for all things in life. And I love that you're just bringing it back to those like basic necessities. Like being a part of my child's life, talking to them and spending time like that, right. This isn't anything that we haven't heard before, but it plays such a powerful role. And so, I think we've got to go back to those core basics because those things are going to help prevent those bigger things from occurring.
Brittany: Absolutely. And it doesn't you anything. It you don't have to go out and have these big, expensive trips. You just need to spend time with them doing what they're interested in doing, you know, being with them, building that relationship and having those difficult conversations of saying, hey, I don't, I don't like drinking. This is why and I really don't want you to drink. And I hope that you can talk to me if you're faced with that, that problem, that dilemma, let me know. You know, and also one thing I think kids don't realize, is when they are faced with those dilemmas. That you know, if they have that peer pressure or you know they're at a party or something are more than happy to take the blame. Parents are would love it if their kids just said my dad would kill me if I use that or if, you know, my mom won't let me. She’ll be so mad at me if I dream. Like I can't that you know, and parents are like, yeah, please. Yeah, blame me. I'll take it. I'll be the bad guy. Yeah.
Hilary: I'll be the bad guy. I'm OK with.
Brittany: Parents are OK being their friends, their kids, this friends, this bad guy like, yeah.
Hilary: Yeah, my son had a non related substance abuse situation, but he was just in a situation where he was with some friends and they were doing something that he didn't necessarily want to do and he sent me this text that was like an SOS, like Mom. I want to go home. I want to go home. Please can I go home. And I was like, 100% yes, I will break up this party and I will send all these kids home. You know, like, yeah, that you ask. For that help and you. Best believe that I will step in. And so, I was like you know, I made-up some blame excuse of. Oh, I'm sorry something came up that. We didn't realize was happening and I got him out of there, you know and I'm just so glad that he sent that because he could have hid that for me. And I could have never known it, but the fact that he was like. I see Mom as somebody that is there that can help me out with this. I mean, I remember I had a I was just having a conversation with a youth at a local high school and we were talking about Internet safety and if something were to happen in an appropriate image or some type of pornographic image that occurred online and he's like, what if my parents yell at me? If I tell them that I've seen something, you know, and I said to him, I'll be honest. Sometimes when that happens, parents are parents are scared, and so they might express some big emotions because a lot of times we don’t know what to do. We might be flustered or overwhelmed.
Brittany: And you know, parents are human too.
Hilary: Yeah. And, you know, we may be angry at the situation, but we're not angry at you as an individual. And so, I said. I will tell you that if you go to a parent to say I'm having a problem with substance abuse, I've seen a pornographic image. I'm dealing with peer pressure. We may not know what to do. But we sure are glad that you are coming to us, over someone else.
Brittany: Yes, absolutely.
Jen: I always believe in open communication, yeah. The other thing I always believe in is natural and logical consequences. And sometimes there are, I think about a cousin that I that was in substance, you know, she was had some addictions and her mother never allowed her to have consequences. She always got the judge to take things away, saying it was her fault as a parent and that just encouraged my niece to or not my niece. My cousin to continue on and so we need to allow kids to have natural and logical consequences and natural ones when they are safe. Because I don't want to just say go out and you know, whatever you're doing. But when they are natural and they are safe, then they need to learn those hard lessons and it's easier to learn them when they're young than when they're older.
Brittany: I see. Well, and especially when they're young and they have the softness of the parents to say I am here to help you through this, I am here. I know it's hard. It's tough and I'm here to help you and I am going to be your advocate and I'm going to help you through this?
Hilary: Yeah, we can't necessarily hide them in a bubble, but we can provide a protective environment for them. The sense that we are open and available to you at any time.
Jen: Well, this has been amazing. We appreciate you coming and talking to us about a hard topic and hopefully there were a lot of little nuggets in there that we can take and use. And so, I hope our listeners has been able to find those little nuggets for themselves. I think this is a, it's a not a one and done conversation that we have. With our kids, we have it on a continual basis. So, thank you for coming and listening today. Hope you remember to be kind to yourself and to others and be patient and we will see you back here next week.
Thank you for listening to the Parents Place podcast. If you would like to reach us, you can at parents@thefamilyplaceutah.org or you can reach Jen on Facebook Jen Daly – Family Place, please check out our show notes for any additional information. Our website is thefamilyplaceutah.org. If you're interested in any of our upcoming virtual classes, we'd love to see you there.
Subject Resources:
Parents Empowered– https://parentsempowered.org/
Know Your Script–https://knowyourscript.org/
Catch My Breath Parents Toolkit–https://catch.org/program/vaping-prevention/#parents
American Lung Association-https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking
Way to Quit–https://waytoquit.org/
Youth Smoking and vaping cessation help: https://ut.mylifemyquit.org/index
See Through the Vape–https://seethroughthevape.org/
Contact us:
-Email us questions or topic ideas: parents@thefamilyplaceutah.org
-Record questions here: https://anchor.fm/theparentsplace
-Parent's Place FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/196037267839869/
Comments