Fighting Addiction

My baby is an addict. Yup, a boob addict :) Many breastfeeding mothers know what I mean.

My eldest daughter is an internet addict. Well, she would be if we didn't limit her time online. She has asked if she could have a Facebook account. My answer, a very firm "NO". I told her to wait till she was 16. Hopefully by then, we would have taught her enough to be safe online.

My 2nd son is a "scratch" addict. Every night he will ask me to scratch his back. I blame this on his grandfather who scratched his back when he was toddler to put him to sleep.

My 3rd son is a junk food addict. We made it a rule that to qualify for any junk food, he must first eat "good food". So, after finishing his meals, he will happily declare that he is eligible for ice cream, chocolate or candy. Please don't think that I have a lot of junk food lying around the house. I don't. A lot of times I try to distract him with something healthier like fruits.

My DH is a clean addict. Before I met him, I thought we only needed to mop the house once a week (sometimes once a fortnight). When we were newly married, I mopped the house twice a week. Now, the house is mopped every day.

Me, I'm probably a Facebook addict. Whenever I'm online, I always get this urge to just check if there are new updates. Oh, excuse me while I go check now. Just kidding.

Anyway, the point of this post is that there are so many "addictions" to fight. As parents, we not only fight our own addictions, we also have to fight our children's ones too. My children are still very young and so their "addictions" are not that serious. Serious addictions would be like drugs, gambling, alcohol and pornography. Those types of addiction, the best approach is prevention. We all know how difficult it is to break a bad habit.

So, as a reminder to self and to all parents, get connected with your children. Have discussions on important stuff, even on uncomfortable topics like sex education. Be firm and set rules. Educate them. Understand them. Pray for them. Guide them with love. Don't wait till they fall victim to these serious addictions before we start to do something.