This month we welcome a new teens and tweens columnist. After three years of filing regular dispatches, Kris Berggren has moved on to other exciting projects. Writer Joy Riggs is stepping in, kicking off her column with a look at what it means to our daughters when we choose to have them vaccinated against HPV. Sure, she writes, thinking about our young daughters as sexual beings is, um, awkward, to say the very least. But she sees this "as opportunity to reinforce the importance of prevention, and the idea that she should feel empowered in making decisions about her health care."
No matter what your take on the new-ish vaccine, empowerment to make decisions about your own health care is one of those vital — but easy to miss — life lessons (like how to call the cable company and negotiate for free HBO — okay, a smidge more important than that). I can imagine myself in a dozen or so years, looking up after dragging my kids to their umpteenth doctor’s appointment, and realizing — cue V8 forehead smack — "Hey, we’ve never talked about that." Doing your research, listening to your body, asking questions of your doctor, knowing your options for preventative care, even picking up the phone and making the darn appointment when it’s time to make the appointment — these are things that all happen largely behind the scenes for our children. If we don’t make the effort to talk to them about health care, they’re liable not to give it much thought — much like the cable company.
And it’s an easy step from there to our feature topic this month: Sure, your kids very likely have a pretty clear picture of your relationship with alcohol, whether you think so or not. But have you talked to them about how you got to this place, about what you did or experienced as a teen and a young adult that made you decide to avoid alcohol altogether, or to give it a place on your dinner table every night, or to save it for special occasions?
Our kids certainly don’t need us to bare every teenage foible or medical decision, but when we bring them along for the ride, talking through important choices like vaccines and drinking, in a way they can understand — even smoothing the conversation, as Joy did, with frozen treats — we can bet they will be better equipped and empowered than if we leave them on the sidelines.
