We all know the stereotype of teens and tweens acting as difficult and unpleasant human beings. With an almost-11 year old son, those misconceptions make me stabby. Why lump a whole group of amazing young people in one negative heap?

I reviewed for The Washington Independent Review of Books a fabulous parenting book last year, All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior. I was relieved to learn from Senior that parents’ own reactions to their children’s natural detaching from their parents, and our personal discomfort with our children’s new individualism, are the main culprit in parent/teen conflicts.

“It is not you, it is me” has become a mantra in my head those times that my oldest son’s freedom of expression or independence gets me riled up.

But truthfully, those moments are much less frequent than the hours every day that my son has me in stitches, engrossed in a fascinating conversation about something he has read or clutched in a fierce bear hug.

The Consumer Health Products Association (CHPA) agrees that teens and tweens get a bad rap and that these misconceptions themselves can be harmful to kids’ self esteems. CHPA says, “Research proves that children who are validated by their parents and possess confidence are most resistant to peer pressure. Cultivating confidence in kids starts at birth but becomes especially important between ages 10-14, the time when children are most vulnerable to peer pressure.”

October is National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month, a time when we as parents need to acknowledge and be aware that teens abuse cough meds to get high (1 in 25 today admit to doing it.) To help build teen confidence and reinforce positive feelings about teens by their parents, CHPA has launched a new site called To My Teen. This site celebrates all of the wonderful, loving, interesting aspects about our big kids! On the site, parents are invited to share what we love about raising our teens, and also learn awareness of the risks and warning sings of OTC cough medicine abuse.

ToMyTeen.org also features a user-generated gallery of images of parents finishing four sentences about their teen or tween. I am sharing the four that I created here with you. Every parent who participates before the end of October is entered to win one of five $50 VISA gift cards. You should enter your images too, it is easy (and fun!)

CHPA is hosting a Twitter party with Mom It Forward this coming Tuesday October 7 from 9-10pm Eastern. Mark your calendar and follow @StopMedAbuse and @MomItForward and the #GNO (girls night out) and #ToMyTeen hashtags to participate, learn and have a great time at this online party.

I want to raise my children to be healthy, inside and out, without living lives tainted by addiction or substance abuse. The first step in keeping our kids from cough medicine abuse is having a conversation with them. Studies have shown that what parents say does matter. In fact, teens who learn about the risk of drugs from their parents are 50 percent less likely to use drugs.

My son Charlie and I have been enjoying the conversations we have been having with these cool conversation starters provided by CHPA. I too appreciated this infographic about beginning a conversation with my child to stop medicine abuse and I hope you find it enlightening, too.

Disclosure: I am proud to serve as an #OTCSafety blogger on behalf of OTCSafety.org. I am compensated for my original contributions and help spreading the word about families’ safe use of over-the-counter products.