Guest Column by Jenny Edwin

Growing up, I used to hear my parents say “raising kids is not easy.” My mom would also tell me that it would take having children of my own to fully understand how much she loved me. My mom was right! Raising kids is tough, but it’s also the most rewarding, loving experience I have ever known.

My husband and I have learned a lot through parenting. A vital key is knowing you can’t do it alone. It truly takes a village. We rely on our families, friends, school, church and community to help make a positive impact on our children.

So how do we deal with parenting when it comes to issues facing our youth today? How do we help our kids to make smart choices knowing full well their brains are not fully developed? How do we keep them safe? What can we do? How do I know if I’m doing it right? Daily, these are the questions I asked myself.

Lily Tomlin once wrote, “I said, somebody should do something about that. Then I realized, I am somebody.” These words have given me comfort, understanding and wisdom.

While I am a parent trying to do the best I can do for my children, I also serve as the director of education at First Lutheran Church. I have a role that allows me to not only model for my own children but help others to know how and when to deal with many challenges life brings. I decided I was going to bring some of these very real issues to our Confirmation program.

With the help of my education commission, together we were able to bring national best-selling author Barbara Coloroso to speak to our community and at First Lutheran Church. Coloroso published the book, “The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander.” Prior to this event, I asked my students and parents what issues they were concerned with and wanted to know more about. It was shortly after this presentation that I realized I wasn’t the only parent who had questions replaying through my mind, nor were the youth afraid to share the issues they too had concerns about with me and my volunteers at church. In fact, they grew to be open and honest and looked forward to discussing these very real issues they have been faced with. We call it, “Hot Topics” a unit designed for our seventh-grade Confirmation students where we help students talk through the many difficult questions and concerns that come to their minds.

A topic that stems from the many we cover is substance abuse. We discuss the warning signs, prevention tactics, peer pressure, legal ramifications, ways to get help, etc. We try and bring awareness to our church families. With the help of community members, I have brought in speakers from Mayo Clinic Fountain Centers, and our local police department. It is my belief that when people hear the stories associated with addiction from the actual person or family member, it makes substance abuse and or addiction come to life and touch students and parents in a different way. The denial that it cannot happen to them tends to go away. 

The Albert Lea Police Department has also played a very impactful role for our students. We have had them bring in their fatal vision alcohol and marijuana goggles, as well as an interactive virtual driving simulator. This allowed the kids an experience of what it’s like to drive impaired due to alcohol, fatigue or legal/illegal drugs as well as distracted driving from texting, cellphone use and their peers.

Freeborn County Partners in Prevention holds a monthly meeting called Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs (ATOD) that I started attending to better educate myself as a parent and as an educator. They, too, have proved invaluable to me, my family and the work I do. Being a part of a group that is constantly looking for ways to promote awareness, educate and respond not only to youth but their parents, is just what I wanted to do. Sometimes I think do I sound like a Pollyanna? Then I remember the statistic I learned a year ago: “Teens who consistently learn about the risk of drugs are 50 percent less likely to use drugs.” Now this is the phrase that sticks to mind, and these are odds I’m willing to take every day of the week!

Jenny Edwin is director of education at First Lutheran Church.