• Never have family outings occurring weekly, monthly, or annually, that they can look forward to as a family event.

• Never eat together as a family.

• Talk to your children, not WITH them; never listen.

• Punish your children in public and never praise them or reinforce their positive behavior.

• Always solve their problems; make decisions for them.

• Leave the responsibility of teaching morality and spirituality to the schools and church.

• Never let your children experience cold, fatigue, adventure, injury risk, challenge, experimentation, failure, frustration, discouragement, etc.

• Threaten your children i.e., "If you ever try drugs or alcohol, I'll punish you."

• Expect your child to get "A's" in school in all subjects.

• Always pick up after them and don't encourage them to accept responsibility.

• Discourage your child from talking about their feelings, i.e., anger, sadness, fear, etc.

• Be overprotective and don't teach your child the meaning of the word consequence.

• Make your child feel that their mistakes are sins.

• Put your child off when asked "why" and tell them, "Because I said so."

• Lead your child to believe that you are perfect and infallible.

• Keep your home atmosphere in a state of chaos.

• Never tell them how much you love them and never discuss your feelings with them.

• Never hug them or display affection in front of them.

• Always expect the worst and never give them the benefit of the doubt.

• Don't ever trust them.

For more information, contact the Rehoboth Beach Police Department's D.A.R.E. officer, at
(302) 227-2577

Last Update: November 10, 2006