Great post Bec ... gotta "share the love" if you know what i mean
I have seen the recent TV reports on teenage drinking and brain damage. It makes me more conscious of the physiological ramifications of drinking (wondering whether it had a detrimental effect on me in my late teens when I lived in a pub!) However I think I will still allow my 12yo a glass of wine (if she wants it) with meals. I want her to understand the difference between responsible drinking and binge drinking and hopefully help her avoid the binge scenario. I think that a lot depends on parental role modelling. My DD sees me enjoy maybe 2/3 glasses of wine with meals a week. DH has the same. He rarely drinks beer at home, maybe in summer if we have a barbie with friends, otherwise we stick to a nice red. Anyhow the emphasis from our DD's perspective is appreciating the wine for it's taste qualities... she hears us comment on that... she knows that we would rather tip a bad wine down the sink than drink it simply because it'll help us relax. I admit to enjoying a wine for relaxation purposes though but I don't verbalise it. Likewise DH never comes home from work saying "I really need a drink". I'm very confident that our DD isn't getting the wrong message about drinking. Like smoking it's something that you CAN'T tell your kids to "do as I say, not as I do". If you demonstrate to your kids (whether you think they are listening or not) that you use alcohol primarily as a relaxant then they will too. Oh and i think I must be a "chipper" bec LOL in my early 20's I smoked very occassionally at clubs/pubs (made a packet of cigarettes last several months!) but I never felt like I needed one. Infact the idea of smoking a cigarette these days makes me want to puke! I would have only smoked about maybe 15 cigarettes in my life BTW... always gave them to people who asked for one when I had them. I don't think I have that "addictive" gene. Have tried many highly addictive substances, more than once, and luckily I just never got hooked. DH is exactly the same so i hope we have passed this gene onto our kids! Doesn't mean we don't still have a lot of positve role modelling to too though of course
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