Family Day 2016
I am honored to once again join First Spouses all across the US in recognizing and celebrating the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse’s Family Day. As the Honorary Chair for Texas, I am helping spread the word about how important parental engagement is to keeping America’s kids substance free.
Parental engagement is an effective tool to help you prevent substance use in your kids, and every little bit counts. It can be as simple as sitting down to eat dinner together. In fact, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse has conducted more than a decade of surveys that have consistently shown a meaningful correlation between frequent family meals and teens being less likely to use tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, less likely to be highly stressed, and more likely to say it’s easy to talk to their parents.
In celebration of Family Day, post your #myfamilyselfie photos on social media. Here’s how: Gather your family for dinner at home or out at a restaurant, and snap a picture or video of everyone spending time together. Then, share the image on social media using #myfamilyselfie today. Learn more here.
I hope you will also join me and parents all across the country by taking the STAR Pledge. Taking the pledge means you pledge to:
S - Spend time with my kids
T - Talk to them about their friends, interests and the dangers of nicotine, alcohol, and other drugs
A - Answer their questions and listen to what they say
R - Recognize that I have the power to help keep my kids substance free!
And while I hope you join me in celebrating Family Day 2016 today, you can also make every day Family Day in your home! Let’s all join together to commit to spending quality time with our sons and daughters. Happy celebrating!