I was catching up on reading all the posts and the issue of telling the kids or not has come up.  It is totally up to each parent and I can only say what I did.  My son is 15 and my oldest daughter is 13.  My husband and I discussed whether or not to tell them and didn't decide until I was day 2 of w/d.  . They saw the agony I was going through and I was fortunately coherent enough to talk to them about how I was on pain pills for my "legitimate" pain but that I started to take more and more and quickly became addicted. I guess I was hoping to use this as a teachable moment! I never want them to go through what I am going through.  They asked lots of questions, ie.how long it would be, how it happened, etc. and they were really great...helped get my two youngest daughters brkfst, dressed. played w/them, etc. Would help me as much as they could and now that I am feeling better, we talk about how addiction happens and they can see that it is not limited to "street addicts" but can happen to anyone!  I hpe this will deter them from starting drugs. Maybe I was wrong....but hopefully not! There is no guarantee, just do what you think is best for your child!