Use protection and don’t do drugs or nicotine. It would be nice if you abstained alcohol as well. That’s about it

Neither sex nor drugs were ever discussed…at least not by my parents.

I still remember what my mother said to me when I got a girlfriend. “Use a condom.” That was it. No pretending it wasn’t going to happen.

As for drugs, my family never liked them. They never told us kids, but my father had an issue with opiates that’s cost him his job and medical license. My older brother also had an issue with opiates.

I used to do a lot of research on erowid on drugs. Between my brother and I it was a lot of don’t be stupid, do your research on what’s safe and what interacts with each other, and stay away from opiates.

For the most part, it wasn’t talked about much in my family, other than my older brother my younger brother and I didn’t gravitate to them too much or hang with people who did. I ended up getting really into weed for a short time, because that’s where my ADHD hyper focus hobby was for a few months. Then I realized I didn’t like not being sober that much.

My parents both openly smoked weed in front of my from a young age. I was told that as long as I was home by curfew and didn’t come home in a cop car they were fine with me doing basically whatever cuz they knew I wasn’t a complete moron (my dad worked in the school system and knew all the ACTUAL problem children really well, they hated me because of that so I never got to be a hoodlum lol), though my nugs WERE taken from me at 15 because “you were dumb enough to let us catch you with it” which is fair but I say they were out and bumming off of me without saying so lol

As for sex I got a quick talk about using a condom after my dad caught my GF and I doing it, but otherwise it was left mostly unsaid cuz my sex Ed wasnt trash

Not discussed, they assumed I knew, they were correct.

Catholic, so not much.

My mom did pick me up some condoms when she knew I was banging though. Not much talk except be safe.

Don’t do drugs, don’t do sex, only bad people going to hell do that. Even the part about us being their biological children was framed as “can you believe what we had to go through?”, because evangelical Christianity is a hell of a drug itself.

Presumably, the teenage talks would have been different, if they hadn’t totally checked out of parenting at that point.

My mom found out I had mushrooms and asked if I was gonna do heroin

You will burn in hell for eternity and always as demons bite and eat your flesh from your body.

Nonexistent, except for a comment from my mom once that she didn’t understand why drugs were illegal, didn’t care what people did in their own homes.

With my kids just an open door communication style, they ask I answer - so like when one got a boyfriend and both were first timers, she asked about STI, was it safe if she had birth control, and we talked about the HPV, HIV, Hepatitis, things you could possibly get from being born or nonsexual contact, but also about relative risk, and how there is always going to be some, but that shouldn’t stop you from living, being open and talking with your sex partners. And talked about enthusiasm rather than consent, that you should not push anyone for consent, wait until both of you feel enthusiastic about sex to do it.

Oh and drugs they don’t seem interested in, alcohol I let them try rarely off and on when teenagers and all have turned out to be responsible with it, some drink occasionally, or weekly, some none, but none abuse it - their bio dad was alcoholic/drug abuser as was his dad and brother so they are kinda hyper aware already that they could have a risk, and have them as bad examples. They don’t want a dependency, so all tread lightly. None seem to have inherited the alcoholic/addictive trait though.

Don’t do drugs

Don’t do sex

I’m indigenous Canadian and both my parents survived residential school in the 50s. Residential school for indigenous people back then was forced on us, especially for children where they were systematically abused by Christian missionaries. Mom was not so abused but dad was terribly traumatized to the point where sex and anything sexual or remotely sexual was forbidden. Just about everything in life to him meant burning in everlasting hell. Drugs were no different but less so.

So our indigenous Christian home just dealt with it all by forbidding everything.

How did it turn out?

I have seven siblings and we all ended up with alcohol and drug addiction by the time we were teenagers. I cleaned up early and I’ve been sober for 29 years, all my other siblings never fell off the deep end (thank God) but I’m the only one who got officially ‘sober’.

I didn’t have kids but everyone else in my family did before anyone was married. One of my younger brothers picked up the slack for me by having children with four women. I have over 40 nieces and nephews, some by the family, some brought in, some married in and others illegitimate.

We’re all one big happy family … but we’re all gonna burn in hell. Lol

I remember frequently telling my mother to stop smoking, hiding her cigarettes and the like (that was in elementary school). She still smokes, I never started.

I wonder where I got that from. I don’t think we talked about that in school so early, and I didn’t have like The Talk about drugs at home.

If you do this, invisible sky god will make your life terrible and you will rot in imaginary pain forever more after you die.

Me: so… Just like now?

My folks were hippies. Did the woodstock thing and all. I grew up around them smoking pot at parties and stuff. When Nancy Reagan told us all it was bad my parents told me she was full of shit, that smoking dope sometimes was as ok as drinking a few beers and that when I moved out of the house I was free to do what I wanted.

As for swx, pretty much the same thing. Wrap your willie, wait till you’re abdcadult, and don’t do it here.

I’m as honest with my kids about drugs now.

Man, my parents were cool as shit about this. And I think it had really good consequences for me later on, like in college.

Sex was positively viewed, but strict about protection (rightly so), and drugs were described as a spectrum with weed being very low, and the scary drugs (heroine) being very scary. They were honest about wanting me to wait for drugs and booze till I was more adult, but let me have a few parties with friends where everyone crashed at their house. It was super fun, and very badass feeling. I got to college and was like … Meh? On partying.

Definitely not the only way to go about it, but the honesty helped me weigh consequences of it all a bit better, I think.