Finding Answers in Playboy

I find golden nuggets of parenting wisdom in all sorts of magazines - Parents, Wondertime, Cookie, and, today, Playboy.

Today while I was spending some quality time with my toilet, I shuffled through a drawer where I keep reading material and I ran across an old Playboy issue that I hadn't read yet. The interviewee was Dr. Drew Pinsky.

I've been loving Dr. Drew since I was in high school. I like that he has a firm stand against women having anal sex, has a superhuman ability to detect childhood trauma, and he has triplets that he would give up his first class airplane ticket to sit in coach with. When I first started listening to Dr. Drew preach the word of safe sex, the triplets were three. Now they're freakin fifteen - or in June 2008 they were. OY.

Anyway, in the Playboy interview, Dr. Drew touched on something that I'd never heard him weigh in on - he had in the past, I just hadn't caught it: What do you say to your child when he asks you if you have ever done drugs?

Dr. Drew says the appropriate answer is, "We don't talk about that." While you and me, as grown ups, might take that to mean something incriminating, to a child, Dr. Drew contends, it means something entirely different. What they might take it to mean, I don't know. But it beats the hell out of saying, "Yeah, I use to smoke tons of pot in high school."***

The truth, Dr. Drew says, is practically giving the kid license to go for it. Go get high.

I don't know about you but I'm ALL ON BOARD for that golden nugget of advice. Oh, by the way, this is a TOTALLY interesting interview that is worth seeking out. Dr. Drew has some really interesting things to say about Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, and, one that really got me thinking, Angelina Jolie.

***NOTE TO DALLY: That was a HYPOTHETICAL statement. Ask ANY of my friends in high school and they will tell you I was a superdork, not a druggie.