There is no shortage of good reasons to discourage underage kids from drinking alcohol.  Besides being illegal, teen drinking is dangerous and often leads to risky behavior.  Research has indicated that early exposure to alcohol can impact brain development and increase the risk of addiction.  Underage drinking is responsible for thousands of deaths each year and increases the risk of suicide in teens. The list goes on and on.

But if all that doesn’t convince your young daughter to abstain, perhaps this will:  Underage drinking can mess up her breasts.  Continue reading »

Tweet

1

Pin It

Many parents struggle with the issue of alcohol and when to let their children have their first taste. Some parents believe that letting teenagers have a small glass of wine with dinner will help them develop a healthy attitude toward a potentially dangerous substance.  Others believe that parents who do that are playing with fire and sending the wrong message to their kids.

Then there are the parents who host drinking parties at their homes.  It’s illegal for sure.  But some believe that by encouraging underage drinking at home, they will prevent it from happening elsewhere.

Regardless of where you come down on the drinking debate, you probably agree that alcoholic beverages should not be marketed to children.  There’s just no reason to go there.  But some might argue that is exactly what Sanrio is doing by allowing their insanely popular Hello Kitty character to grace a collection of Italian wines. Continue reading »

Tweet

6

Pin It

So your kid has started blogging and you’re terrified you’re going to be reading about their drinking, drug use, and sexual escapades, right?  Well, it turns out that’s probably not going to be the case.  At least, that’s what researchers at Ohio State University found in a study of 100 teen bloggers from around the country.

Continue reading »

Tweet

1

Pin It

Awhile back, New York Times writer Paul Clarke said he thought it is good to drink around your kids as a parenting tactic because it teaches them moderation. Of course, Mr. Clarke is the Times’ alcohol beat writer, so I’m guessing he’s bound to come down on the “pro-drinking” side of many an argument. Me, I’m not so sure.

Continue reading »

Tweet

16

Pin It

Remember the beloved children’s book The Runaway Bunny?  Little Bunny tried his hardest to run away, but his mother kept blocking his escape route:   She’d be a fisherman fishing him out of the stream, the wind blowing his sailboat, and the tree he flies home to.

“If you become a crocus in a hidden garden,” said his mother, “I will be a gardener.  And I will find you.”

Cute when you’re three, of course.  It’s comforting to know that mom’s always looking out for you.  But at 18?  It starts to move into the realm of creepy.

Parenting blogs are discussing a new trend this week:  Colleges have noticed the influx of helicopter parents on their campuses, and they’re taking advantage of the extra attention.  At some colleges, parents of underage students who get caught drinking get a phone call home to alert Mom and Dad.

Continue reading »

Tweet

8

Pin It

We’ve all been there, drunk and passed out on the fast food restaurant playland, the kids joyfully amusing themselves. It’s the picture of a perfect afternoon until the dumb cops arrive. So presented with such an intrusion, naturally you turn your children into weapons.

And who wouldn’t? We’ve all dreamed of controlling our own vicious legion of toddlers, eager to do our evil bidding. I mean, that’s why we had kids in the first place. But quickly after they’re born we learned our babies are more interested in gnawing on the corner of a Dora blanket than being our henchman.

But one drunk father in Colorado Springs never gave up.

Joshua Alger, 28, is the aforementioned man. When McDonald’s employees called the police on the prostrate Alger the cops realized he already had a warrant out.

So Alger released his hounds kids. Alger freaked, commanding his kids to “bite the officers’ faces off.” They didn’t.

And what is the punishment for sicking your kids on the cops? You get tased, bro. No, the cops did not tase the kids too.

One wonders if this was a scenario he’d already prepared for, training his kids to attack on command. On a serious note, let’s hope these kids have more sober relatives willing to take them.

Source: Denver Westword

Babble Links:
The Secret Lives of 4 Famous Children’s Authors

Little Girl Born with 8 Limbs Starts School

Mother Commits Suicide after Blog Comments, Son’s Choking Game Death

9-Year-Old Gives Birth

Tweet

2

Pin It

Like a lot of my friends, I’ve subscribed to the idea that sharing an adult beverage with teens at home once in awhile – a glass of wine with dinner, say – will teach them to drink responsibly. They’ll learn how it’s done, the theory goes. That’s how they do it in Europe, people say knowingly over their own wine glasses.

Some European scientists have a message for us well-intentioned family drinkers: Don’t do that. Continue reading »

Tweet

1

Pin It