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Strollerderby
How much of what kids learn from their friends about drinking is false? Lots.
Kids know pretty much everything about anything. Just ask them. But just because they think they know everything about drinking doesn’t mean they actually do.
Summertime is fun time for plenty of teens who revel in the freedom from school books and exams. However, it can also be the time when kids step it up in terms of alcohol consumption. Some of it can be harmless fun, but how much do your kids really know about drinking, and how much of what they know is actually false?
You and your kid should check out out these 13 facts about alcohol that can be the difference between life and death:
Brenda Wilhelmson, author, "Diary of an Alcoholic Housewife."
The TODAY Show interviewed Brenda Wilhelmson this morning, a mother of two and author of the new book Diary of an Alcoholic Housewife. In a video below, Wilhelmson describes waking up every day with a hangover. I know the feeling. I’ve actually stopped drinking for 30 days, not because I think I’m dependent on alcohol, but because I hate the way drinking even two beers the night before makes me feel in the morning. I’ve never been a morning person, and now that I have to get up during the 7 o’clock hour every day to take my daughter to school, I need to do everything I can to make mornings easier on myself.
Here at Strollerderby, we’ve discussed whether or not wine should be marketed to moms. Dawn says it’s okay for Moms to drink, as long as you know when to say when. But that’s the problem – it can be hard to say anything when your speech is slurred. Just ask Stephanie Wilder-Taylor, who built a career on books like Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay. She quit drinking two years ago.
Both Wilder-Taylor and Wilhelmson are “high-functioning alcoholics,” or as a woman in the TODAY Show clip below put it, proof that “you don’t have to hit rock-bottom, you don’t have to lose everything in your life to be an alcoholic.” Continue reading »
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- Mommy’s sippy cup
I’m a single mom of 3 girls and 3 boys, trying to juggle kids, work and laundry with the help of God, family, friends and wine (not necessarily in that order). That’s how the bio on my personal blog reads. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my life. I love my kids. I love being a mom. I wouldn’t trade a minute of it for all gold in the world, although I’d consider trading it for a nap. Nah, I wouldn’t even trade it for a nap. But let’s face it, being a mom is hard work. It’s demanding. It’s never-ending. It’s emotionally draining. And it’s without monetary compensation.
In the evening, you put the kids to bed, look back over the day’s events and relive them just one more time -
The affect of alcohol on the unfinished brain should not be taken lightly
The drinking age is 21, but many parents believe there’s no harm in kids consuming alcohol if they do it responsibly and while under adult supervision.
Scientists, however, disagree.
A new study says teens who drink under adult supervision are more prone to develop alcohol problems than kids who don’t imbibe until the law says its OK.
Something to think about as prom night approaches.
Two wine producers are now battling it out over the use of the word “Mommy” on their bottle labels:
Mommy’s Time Out: “We All know that being a Mommy is a difficult job. A Mommy’s Time Out is a well deserved break.”
and Mommyjuice : “…balanced, fruit-forward wines that bring just a bit of peace after the chaos of everyday life as a parent.”
The Tipsy Mommy has been enjoying a media moment recently. She’s a natural postermom for the backlash against the hyper-vigilant helicopter parenting model: Relax, the kids are fine, have a drink. There’s a reason this idea has traction. Motherhood, while, of course, rewarding beyond measure–is friggin’ relentless. And nothing says ‘lemme outta here for a minute‘ like a few dead brain cells.
But this is the first time a bottle of alcohol has been directly marketed to mothers. What, exactly are they trying to tell us? Continue reading »
Alcohol disrupts women's sleep
A nightcap is often a surefire way to nod off to dreamland, but research shows that too much alcohol actually disrupts sleep, causing frequent night wakings and restless sleep. The effect is particularly strong among women.
Unlike men, though, women don’t report feeling sleepier after a night of alcohol-induced bad sleep. They get poor quality sleep but don’t appear to notice that they slept badly.
In fact, the Daily Beast reports that women react differently than men do to alcohol consumption in all kinds of weird ways. Differences in sleep after drinking are just one of the ways women have unique responses to booze.
A woman needs to drink only 90% of what a same-weight man does to reach the same blood alcohol level. She may or may not feel equally drunk, depending on her individual tolerance. Because women have fewer enzymes in our stomachs to break down alcohol, we get more ethanol into our blood streams. That means women alcoholics often suffer the same organ damage male alcoholics do, even if they start drinking later in life. Continue reading »
Many parents give alcohol to their kids
Drinking booze is a strictly grown-up activity, right?
Wrong. Most of us have our own fond – or at least blurry – memories of drinking as teens. That teenage drinking is starting younger these days. Forget about prom night. A new study shows that roughly 6% of kids ages 12 to 14 drink alcohol. And a shocking number of them are getting it from their parents.
While in 15% of cases, the kids are taking alcohol from their parents without permission, another 15% are getting it directly from their parent or guardian. A similar number get grown-up drinks from another relative.
Really, people. They’re called “adult beverages” for a reason. They’re for adults.
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