Last week, New York Times blogger Paul Clarke
suggested that drinking in moderation is a good parenting tactic, as it
gives children an example of how to--and how not to--drink themselves,
when the day arrives. The theory goes that extremes in either
direction--bingeing on alcohol or shunning it completely--will give
kids an unrealistic and unhealthy attitude towards alcohol. The author
explains that in his own early drinking days, it was the teens with
T-totalling parents who had the worst drinking habits.
I suppose
it's a relatively plausible notion. My own parents, raised themselves
by T-totallers, drank in moderation around their children. I guess I
turned out okay. And now my partner and I are moderate drinkers, if
the definition of "moderate" can include sharing a glass of wine about
3 times a year. By Clarke's definition, we probably aren't drinking
enough to give our kids the right attitude towards alcohol.
Then again, I don't know if I think it matters--outside the extremes of
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