DRUGS!!! Keep away from my Child!!!
As I was sitting and sipping my tea going through the newspapers, the headlines caught my attention —Drugs and Children!! I sat up with a start. A faint memory jogged back upon reading this and I felt the overwhelming need to share it in the present circumstances. This is a true happening and I really hope it helps many parents and children if they are stuck in similar circumstances. This post has tips to How to Keep Kids away from Drugs.
Lalitha, as I recollect was such a bubbly innocent girl, just out of school with many dreams of a fulfilling future. She wanted to be a great Civil Engineer and to create grand structures. She got admitted into a prestigious college and put her heart and soul into her studies.
All was well and then she met Kiran!!
They hit it off from the very first moment and were soon inseparable. They would leave each other to go home only to be back together the next day. Even Lalitha’s parents liked Kiran and encouraged the budding friendship, only to regret later.
College life proceeded smoothly and finally exams! Both put in hard work and were awaiting good results. In the mean time though, Lalitha was becoming more and more obsessive about Kiran. She was always with Kiran, eating from her boxes, talking to her and shut herself from all her other friends. She was beginning to look very pale too and always seemed to have a listless look around her except when Kiran was with her. All this was attributed to exam tension by her parents.
But a huge tragedy was in the waiting. One day Lalitha’s parents had gone out shopping and she was alone at home. On their return, upon repeated knocking, Lalitha would not open the door. Getting very tensed, they called the security and broke the door open.
Horror of horrors, they found Lalitha hanging from the ceiling fan of her room.
Nothing seemed to be clear. Why would she do such a thing?? This kept echoing in the minds and hearts of one and all who knew Lalitha as a sweet innocent girl. The body was taken for postmortem and then slowly the horrifying facts were revealed.
The results showed a shocking level of drug intake. But she had not died of a drug overdose. She had purposefully, killed herself. The reasons soon unraveled.
The suicide and the result of the postmortem results were much publicized. The next day, strange people came knocking on Lalitha’s doors. On inquiry the family came to know that they were money lenders and had given a lot of money, running into thousands to Lalitha as a loan and wanted it all back now that she was no more. Her parents were totally crazed.
Police investigation started to heat up and finally the pieces of the puzzle fell into place when Kiran was arrested.
Yes, Kiran, Lalitha’s best friend, her soul friend, whom she had trusted and loved was the reason for her tragic situation finally leading to her Death.
Kiran, sweet dear Kiran, had a flourishing business. She would lure innocent students into her flawless friendship and once they were well entrapped, she would supply them drugs freely as in sweets, chocolates or food. Slowly they became addicts and crave for whatever she gave them to eat, and then she would start selling them the drugs. Having become totally addicted and enslaved to the drugs and not being able to confide to their family, they took money on loan and went deeper and deeper into this quagmire.
Lalitha had realized what was happening and not knowing how to escape the clutches, ended her beautiful life! How gullible our kids are…Oh…so tragic and painful!
This memory shook me up again as I was reading the latest news. Something had to be done, I felt very deeply. Are we making our children weak? The nuclear family now, with both parents away on work, are we pushing our children away from us, that they fail to reach out to us in their time of need?
There was great turmoil in me and I felt the need to share my thoughts and feelings on how to keep kids away from Drugs here with all you responsible parents to be aware of.
- First and the most important, parents please talk to your kids, every day, as much as you can..in a nice and friendly manner. It is essential that they feel free to communicate with you at any level.
- Be aware of children issues and make your self comfortable to talk with them especially adolescent children. They have so many questions and pressure on them, they would be thankful for your time and interest.
- Money should be available and also controlled by clearly explaining it importance and consequences of irresponsible spending.
- Issues of teenagers, both physical and emotional should be spoken out aloud and the children viewpoint should be heard and analysed together. As we talk together, certain signals are subtly given away inadvertently. Keep your eyes and ears open around them always. If only Lalitha’s parents had their intuition up, they could have easily seen through the over dependency on a new found friendship and much suffering would have be averted.
- There are many dangers lurking around children like, drugs, alcohol, kidnap, slavery to name a few. Even social media addiction is a major menace. As a parent we should ourselves be aware of them and never hesitate to speak about the good and the bad faces of it with them.
- Never shy away from obvious solutions like medical help, emotional and mental help and de-addiction if it were a drug or alcohol or any such addiction problem. All these are safest and best options. We, as parents,should not consider wrong thoughts put by certain people around us and make our own valuable decisions.
Nothing is ever more important than the life of our darling child. Please parents, take care. Never belittle them or their issues driving them over the edge. Be patient and love them through all their inadequacies and follies. They need us the most always!
I hope the above tips to how to keep kids away from Drugs might be helpful for you!
Parents, remember – Awareness is Knowledge and Knowledge is Power. Use it judiciously.
Our children are our future, protect them from these harmful influences.
Happy Parenting with Budding Star
- How to Keep Kids away from Drugs - September 13, 2017
