ABSTRACT
In order to exercise vigilant care regarding a specific risk factor, parents should begin by staging a preparatory talk on the subject with the child. This chapter aims to raise the child's awareness about the risk factor and the parents' stance and concern regarding it; to increase the parents' presence in the child's mind; and to facilitate communication on the subject. It illustrates how such talks can be initiated, conducted and followed-up, illustrating this with the subject of tobacco, drug and alcohol use. The child is thus viewed as "growing up" into new kinds of risk. When parents make their position clear, in less authoritarian ways, they definitely reduce risk. The meetings of teenagers are characterized by a special atmosphere that dampens the parents' voices. The majority of youngsters probably begin smoking as part and parcel of their group experience. Parents cannot expect their voice to be always stronger than the voice of the group.
