This was my favorite parenting news item of the week. We now have hard statistics to prove that if we pay attention to kids, they are less likely to use drugs. Wow, groundbreaking stuff.

HealthDay News reported last week on a new study that states parents who keep up with their kids activities and express strong anti-drug views can reduce their children's marijuana use.

According to the study, marijuana is the most widely drug used by teens. They claim nearly 42 percent of high school seniors have tried it.

"We've been working on attenuating drug use in kids," said lead researcher William Crano, a professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, Calif. "What we have been noticing in our research is that parental monitoring seems to have a strong relationship to lessening of drug use in young adolescents."

Crano and his colleague Andrew Lac, a doctoral student at Claremont, reviewed 17 studies, which involved more than 35,000 people, all focused on parents monitoring for teens’ marijuana use. The level of perceived parental monitoring was evaluated by the teens.

"We found the effect was there," Crano said, especially for teenage girls. "It was clear that kids who thought their parents were monitoring them used much less marijuana than kids who didn't."

And here is where I have to interject: Duh. Moving on…

"The interesting thing is this has to do with kids' perception of parental monitoring, not necessarily what their parents are actually doing," he said. "If your kids think that you know what they are doing, and where they're at, and who they're with and what they are doing when they are not in your sight, that has a big impact on the kind of trouble they are going to get into," he added.

The Importance of the Bluff

The study proves it’s not about reality at all; it’s about perception. This is why you have to get your bluff in early, in the toddler years. If you can convince your child early on that you literally have eyes in the back of your head, it won’t be a stretch to later convince them that you’ve attached chemical sensors into their dental fillings that send you a text message the moment there is anything inside their mouth that shouldn’t be.

"There are two ways parents can monitor their children," Crano said. "Either they watch them like a hawk or the kid discloses what he's up to. Both methods work to keep children away from drugs."

"If parents give the impression to their kids that they really care about them, that they are really watching what they are doing, that they are concerned, that has a strong impact on what the children are going to do in terms of antisocial behavior, which includes marijuana use," Crano said.

There are no guarantees, but pay attention — duh. And get your bluff in early. Praying for the best doesn’t hurt either.