A message for parents in the Orthodox Jewish Community

Have you hugged your child today?
Have you asked your teenage child where he has been, where she is going, who they are going to be with, what they are going to be doing?
Have you hugged your child today?
Did you sit down at dinner and discuss what happened in school or at the mall today? And didn't take "stuff" for an answer?
Have you hugged your child today?
Have you set a curfew and made your teenager stick to it?
Have you hugged your child today?
Have you told your child once, and then again, and then still again, to "just say no" -- have you also told them to walk away and don't go back?
Have you hugged your child today?
Do you tell your child that you love him, that you will always love her, and that if they need help you will provide it? And then carried through?
Have you hugged your child today?
Are you willing to call your child's bluff? To call the police, to take them to the hospital, to carry through with the drug test?
I have. I am one of the lucky one's. It took me a long time to see, and when I did, I called the bluff. I called the cops. We went to the hospital, and for us it worked, and I can hug my child today.
It doesn't always work, and then we all cry for the lost potential, the lost hope, the lost opportunities.
But what you can't do is close your eyes, to say it doesn't happen here, to say it can't happen to our kids, to say it isn't in our community -- because it is.
Please, hug your child today!