Often parents worry that the older sibling, typically a teen, is a bad influence on the younger sibling. They worry that the younger sibling is going to turn out like the older one and do drugs and alcohol, whatever the problem is. Actually, that typically is not true. More often than not, a younger sibling will not follow in that path, and instead will create a new path based on the negativity. If you do see a younger child following in the negative path of an older child, it's really important to become the kind of person that your child can talk to. Here's your opportunity to do it over again, to become that communicative parent. So, what you need to do is you go to the child, and you find ways to open up conversations about drugs, about alcohol, about sex. A good way to open it up is maybe you're watching a TV program together and somebody is using drugs or maybe you have a neighbor who's pregnant across the street, and you can talk about sex. But it's very important that you don't lecture your child. Children hate lectures and what it does is it shuts them down. Everything you say to your child, you want to be asking yourself, "Will this open up communication or will this close communication." If it's going to open it, keep on going. Be someone that they can go to with their questions.