Last November, a friend of mine and his wife came for a visit to Brisbane from Vancouver. They are planning to move to Australia because there is too much drugs available to kids in Vancouver and they want to protect their children.

Last weekend 4 of Yaya’s classmates got suspended for 20 days for smoking weed during school hours. ( They went to the nearest park to smoke, so got caught for truanting as well as smoking weed)

Two of the kids are children of my friends and I have often given them lifts to their home. Usual stereotype about drug users..bad parenting, too much money etc are not involved here and the kids were aware of the consequences of their actions. It was just a stupid decision without any forethoughts..

A friend once told me about a well behaved boy in her neighbourhood from a well to do family. He had a sleepover at a friend’s house, which was near to a railway yard. At night the boys decided to be a bit naughty. They jumped over the fence and tried to unhitch a wagon at the station and the station master tried to stop them. Somehow the wagon rolled over the station master and killed him and the boy went to jail on murder charge.. A moment of stupidity and a life time to pay.

As a parent, I am very much aware that I can’t raise my children in a bubble. They are bound to make stupid mistakes..but a lot of which you can hopefully  prevent if you talk to your children. Moving from one country to another in the hope of protecting your children from drugs is probably not the answer.

When Yaya told me about the incident, she said “Mom, they were really stupid, if only they had thought of their future..this suspension will be marked on their final marks card and it will really affect their chances of getting admission to Uni”

She knows that because I took her for campus visit to most of the Unis in US and how competitive the whole process is. And I have often told them about their school records and why it is important to have a squeaky clean record.

I am still heart broken for the kids who got suspended..