Episode 15: How Do I Talk to My Kids About Alcohol?
September 18, 2026
In this episode of Dear Vernon, Eric Johnson and Laura McKowen respond to a parent who recently found alcohol and vapes in their 14-year-old daughter's room. They know their own alcohol use has affected their daughter, and they want to help her avoid going down the same path.
Laura shares what these conversations have looked like with her own daughter over nearly 12 years of sobriety, from bringing her to recovery meetings as a little kid to navigating parties, alcohol, honesty, and independence as a teenager. One of the biggest things she's learned? You don't need one big, perfect Talk. In fact, that's probably not how this works.
Eric shares what these conversations look like now that his own kids are older, including a daughter in college and a 21-year-old son. The parenting doesn't stop when they're 18, and neither does the opportunity to be someone they can come to.
They talk about:
Why secrecy around addiction can create shame
Answering the question your kid actually asked (without turning it into a TED Talk)
The difference between being honest and oversharing
Why Laura's approach changed as her daughter became a teenager
Creating a relationship where your kids can tell you the truth, even when you don't love the truth
Talking about alcohol without making it taboo
What to do with the regret you may carry about how your drinking affected your kids
Letting other trusted adults be part of your kid's support system
Why modeling sobriety may matter more than finding exactly the right words
How these conversations change as your kids become adults
There isn't a perfect script for this. Laura McKowen and Eric Johnson aren't pretending there is. But you can be honest. You can keep the conversation open. You can let your kids see what sobriety looks like in real life. And no matter how old they are when you get sober, you get to start showing them something different now.
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