I know from personal experience how hard it is to start a conversation with your kids about cough medicine abuse, or any drug use for that matter. It’s not a fun conversation, but you need to do it, and we can help. Here are some tactics you can use to talk to your kids: Point out a drug-related situation or use newspaper headlines or TV stories as a starter for the conversation.

• Let your kids know how dangerous abusing cough medicine can be.
• Ask your kids how they would handle a situation in which they were pressured to abuse cough medicine.
• Show them how necessary it is to respect and use medicines safely.
• Tell them you don’t want them to end up in the hospital or worse.

Also, visit the web site, Time to Talk, by the Partnership for a Drug Free America to learn more about how to talk to your kids about substance abuse. We would also love to hear from you. Do you have tactics or advice that you’ve used to teach your kids about the dangers of substance abuse? If so, please join us by sharing what you’ve learned on the Five Moms community on Gather.