Strollerderby : drinking

Dad Drives Drunk With Kids In Car

Brett Singer — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:30:00 GMT

Jason Ryan Damos of Portland, Oregon went for a drive. Drunk. With his kids in the back seat. A police chase ensued, and eventually Damos was caught. And arrested. Charges were "reckless endangerment, hit and run, felony elude and drunken driving." ("Felony elude" is a new term to me. It has a nice ring to it.)

After being involved in a hit and run accident, Damos kept on driving, possibly hitting other cars; full details were not in the KATU report. The main thing is that he had his two children, ages 3 and 4, in the back seat while he did his version of "The Dukes of Hazzard."

How drunk was he? According to one of the arresting officers, he was "beyond intoxicated." That phrase isn't as new to me as "felony elude," but it is very descriptive.

The mother of the two children was there to take the kids after police got Damos by "getting him to spin out, in what is called a 'pit maneuver.'" Dramatic stuff. Luckily the kids are OK.

Source: KATU

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Boy Calls 911 When Mom Drives Drunk

Brett Singer — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:30:00 GMT

File this under "I may not be perfect but I'm a better parent than this lady."

36-year-old Belinda Leighton of Boca Raton, Florida was arrested this week and charged with driving drunk. With her kids, ages 9 and 13, in the car.

After spending "the morning drinking wine and beer", Leighton got in her car with children in tow. She told the kids that she had "had it" (it's not clear if she'd "had it" with them or just in general) and "was going to kill them and herself by crashing the car." One of the children called 911 from the back seat; Leighton was arrested at a friend's house.

According to WPBF News, Leighton asked that the deputies "take her children and put them in foster care." I give her credit for that, at least. Hopefully that's an indication that she knows she has a problem and will get help.

Big props to the kid who called 911 as well. It would be enough to just get out of that situation physically unharmed (emotionally is another story). But to have the presence of mind to call the police? I'm impressed. (I know, looking for a positive here, but can you blame me?)

Source: WPBF

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Drinking While Pregnant: Is Any Amount Okay?

Kate Tuttle — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:01:00 GMT

As Miriam posted about earlier this week, a few new studies have come out that some are using to argue, again, that ANY amount of alcohol during pregnancy is dangerous for the unborn -- even though the studies themselves say no such thing. Now Amy Graff at SFGate's Mommy Files reports on the ongoing controversy, quoting doctors and mothers who differ with the most stringent "no drinking" line, and exploring what the studies really say.

My favorite quote quote is from the doctor who says:

"If you're at a dinner party and someone pours a 1978 Bordeaux, I say go ahead and try it. Most healthy pregnant women lose their taste for alcohol, especially in early pregnancy when alcohol is known to exert its greatest effects, so they're only going to be having a sip here and there anyway."

The problem, as so many have pointed out, is that the vast majority of the research data focus on women who drink heavily during pregnancy, or binge drink. It's no surprise that their babies are at high risk for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, nor is it really any surprise that the public health message -- aided by an often hysterical media -- compresses all alcohol use into this baby-damaging paradigm. But is there any science out there that tells us what really happens when a pregnant woman drinks very occasionally? And how do we square the dangers of FAS with the example of all those gorgeous French children whose mothers drank a moderate amount of (excellent) wine while gestating?

The SFGate piece links to three studies, all of which seem to provide some evidence of some effect -- whether on size or behavior -- of the children of women who drank lightly in pregnancy. Public health folks continue to deliver the message that there is no known safe amount, although most doctors will contradict that (mine advised me to have a glass or two of wine following the amnio, and then said, when I visited France in my six month, that he certainly hoped I would have some wine). With one woman in twelve reporting that she drank at least a little alcohol during pregnancy, the confusion will likely continue, leaving individual mothers to asses their own risk level.

So how about it? Did you lift a glass while pregnant? Did you feel guilty or worried, or do you think the health message is overstated?

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Morning News - Watchmen, Wiper Fluid and the World Wide Web

Brett Singer — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday! (You need to hear that in the voice of a 1980's era Monster Truck radio ad announcer. That reference either makes sense or it doesn't. Apologies if it doesn't.)

Quick comment: I have to say that when I said I would fill in for Madeline for a few days, the last thing I thought I would be writing about was former President George W. Bush. Not that I mind, but it seems strange. I had an item about him yesterday, and there's one today. I'm not looking for them, believe me.

And now -- the news!

Update from Nerdy Movie Land (which, surprisingly, is not located at my house): 'Watchmen' dropped to second place, losing the top spot to 'Race to Witch Mountain.' Proving... nothing, really. Personally, I want 'Watchmen' to do well so that studio executives keep greenlighting superhero movies. So far it's made about $85 million, which is pretty good for two weeks. Unfortunately, there are reports that many people are walking out of the film before it's over, which doesn't really help with that whole word of mouth thing.

The guy who pretty much invented the World Wide Web – Tim Berners-Lee, not Al Gore – once got scammed online when buying a Christmas present. He's also warning people against "website snooping" and talking about keeping your personal data safe. Good idea, Tim, but if even you got scammed, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Campbell's Soup is not planning to cut their prices. Got that? How is this a headline? Seems that the company feels that prices are low enough, and sales are growing anyway. Hence, no price lowering. I repeat -- why tell anyone this? I prefer the organic stuff, myself, and my kids wouldn't eat soup if they were starving, so it doesn't affect me. But if I did eat Campbell's Soup, hearing this might make me NOT buy it. Just saying.

President Barack Obama wants to block bonus payments to AIG execs, and NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants to know who is getting the money. This is not going to end anytime soon, methinks.

In other financial news, former White House spokeswoman Dana Perino says that her former boss deserves some of the credit for a recent bounce in the stock market. I didn't realize that being a Presidential flack was a lifetime position.

Lindsay Lohan will NOT, repeat NOT, be arrested. C'mon, you know that makes you happy. Her arrest warrant was recalled and she "enroll in a new alcohol education program." TMZ reports that she had a "personality conflict" with the program she was in before. What does that mean, that she wanted to drink while she was there?

The kids who drank the wiper fluid are OK, which is good. I'm still not clear on why this stuff tastes good. Wouldn't that flavoring have to be an additive of some kind? And if it is, why include it? Is it possible that wiper fluid just tastes sweet naturally? That would be, as my son might say, weird.

And finally, Shannon tells us about a new dinosaur, more specifically "a new species of pliosaur." The photo (above) is just flat out cool. Apparently this particular pliosaur was "more powerful than T Rex, with a head twice its size, a set of 12-inch teeth, and a weight of about 45 tons." Yowsa. Show this one to your kids, unless you think it'll give them nightmares. Heck, it might give me nightmares. Look at those teeth...

That's all for today - more tomorrow...

Photo: Guardian

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They [Didn't] Say: Not Even a Drop of Alcohol

Miriam Axel-Lute — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Oh the pull of the easy, dramatic headline.

Lauredhel, over at Hoyden About Town, has two interesting, detailed posts up recently about the, shall we say, divergance between what a scientific study and a set set of agency guidelines, respectively, actually say, and what's been been reported about them. It's all Aussie, but I know the same things happen here (and presumably booze and pregnancy aren't that different down under, physically).

In the first, she takes apart a study that finds an increased risk of pre-term birth for binge drinkers (shocking, I know) and, with very slim margins of confidence, women who drink heavily in the first trimester and then stop (but not, interesting, those who keep going. It would be interesting to come up with a mechanism for why that would be). It does not find an increased risk for light drinking. Also, much of its data appears to be pretty tentative.

But the coverage of it says the report states that "abstinence is still the safest option" (It might be. I did. But the report says no such thing) and also gets the data about the trimesters wrong. Laurdehel takes both the original study and the coverage apart in minute detail.

In the second, quite similarly, she notes some health guidelines that, based on no new evidence, reverse their previous stance that a light amount of drinking is OK while breastfeeding and start suggesting abstinence, though retaining a level-headed description of what would constitute a cautious approach to alcohol and lactation. The coverage (1) implied that there was some new evidence that it's more dangerous than previously believed and (2) never even mentioned the existence of the more nuanced guidelines.

It's easy to pick on journalists, sometimes too easy, but it's also necessary sometimes, because they have all the same cultural biases and habits (like infantilizing women and being alarmist about pregnancy) as everyone else.

Photo by timomcd.

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Mamas Don't Let Your Kids Grow Up to Drink and Party

JeanneSager — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:36:00 GMT

The secret to teetotalling kids may have been discovered by a teen with a taste for the straight life.

Chelsea Lynn Jurman, a seventeen-year-old from New York, is one of forty finalists in the new incarnation of the Westinghouse Science competition, with her social science study of what influence talk of parents' wild party days has on their teen's drinking habits.

The news, Jurman found, is not good. If you talk about teenage indiscretions in front of your kids, her survey of one hundred twenty-three teens shows they're more likely to believe that it's acceptable to do so themselves. If the kids didn't hear much about their parents drinking as kids, they were more likely to just say no.

I'm divided on how I feel about this study. I've always felt there's a delicate balance between lying to our kids and revealing too much. It's my problem with kids and parents meeting on Facebook - not everyone in the family needs to know EVERYTHING about each other. Telling kids about your youthful indiscretions, then instructing them not to copy you, is literally the "do as I say, not as I do" model of parenting - which works, um, never.

On the other hand, if my now three-year-old daughter one days asks if I had any alcohol as a child, I don't think I can lie to her. "No, Mommy waited until she was twenty-one and in perfect accordance with all laws" is A. a lie B. not realistic and C. likely to make a teenager roll her eyes and walk away. I'll lose that "teachable moment" we're always searching for. I'd like to think I'll divulge the bits that are most important for a growing teen - "Yes, I drank, but I never drove with any alcohol in my system," or "Yes, but I never drank at a party where I didn't know everyone, and trust everyone."

My colleague Shannon discussed the interesting theory that some parents think they need to drink FOR the kids, but this isn't a matter of how you model drinking behaviors today (which I do think is an important part of developing appropriate attitudes toward alcohol). Parents have to decide how much of their past they can edit. Is there anything you'll be holding back?

Image: Scientific American

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They Say: Alcohol Tastes Better If You Get It First in the Womb

Miriam Axel-Lute — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:30:00 GMT

Perhaps I can blame the fact that I can't take the bitterness of beer on my mother. It seems that on top of all the known hazards of drinking while pregnant, it also just might give your kid a taste for booze.

Emphasis on the might. This is one of those studies that should be taken with a grain of salt, as it was done on rats and the pregnant rat moms were basically kept drunk much of the time, not just allowed to sneak a glass of wine now and then. (While I'm all about not being alarmist, I hope there's no one out there who thinks a constant BAC of .15 during pregnancy is acceptable.)

With those caveats in mind, the results: baby rats born to alcohol-soaked mothers were distinctly more interested in licking alcohol-covered feeding tubes than the controls. Shocking, no? They were also more willing to lick a non-alcohol bitter substance, making the researchers figure the efect of fetal alcohol exposure on taste in particular is to reduce the resistance to bitter flavors.

I have to say, I think it's a stretch to go from here to surmising that this is why fetal alcohol exposure is linked to higher rates of alcohol abuse at 21. Is "it's an acquired taste" really that much of a barrier if the other conditions for abuse are in place? Wouldn't it just drive you to sugary, non-bitter drink and worse hangovers? (Or conversely, if other risk factors for abuse aren't present, is liking the taste enough to make you abuse it?)

Photo by Chris Owens.

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Comcast Super Bowl Surprise

Brett Singer — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Some Arizona cable subscribers got mighty ticked off during the Super Bowl on February 1. But not only because the Cardinals lost the game.

Certain Comcast cable customers were watching Larry Fitzgerald's terrific catch and run with just over two minutes left in the game, when suddenly something… else… appeared on their screens. A movie. The kind of movie you really don't want your kids to see.

The title of said movie was "Wild Cherries 5." Let's just say that you don't really need to have seen any of the first four films in order to follow the plot.

This comment from The Arizona Daily Star website sums it up nicely and even uses clean language:
It was really weird. I thought at first, awww, whet are they doing , thinking it was just an edgy commercial that the Superbowl is known for.
Then it was clear that something was really wrong as the guy stood up and everything was there, yes, everything.

If you want to see the video, click here. It is not safe for work, school, children, or pets. Well, maybe pets. Maybe.

All kidding aside, parents who were watching the game with their kids were quite peeved at this year's wardrobe malfunction. (Also from the AZ Star.)
I had a 2 and a 7 year-old in the room and it was totally disgusting. Comcast better get ready to give all subscribers at least one free month of service for having to be subject to this filth!

Full month of service from Comcast and Cox cable (make up your own joke there, Beavis)? Nope. Ten bucks. Maybe they can use it to order some pay-per-view.

One parent who understands how those parents feel is Tristan Kingsley, the star of the film in question. Kingsley, who has appeared in 600 adult films (I get tired just typing that phrase), has two children of her own, a three year old girl and a four year old boy. She told the Star, "I've read some comments that parents have left on different blogging sites, and I can understand that they'd get a little upset that their children might be watching it. I would never go and put one of my videos on for my kids to watch."

Wow. Just…wow.

What would you do if you were watching TV with your kids and suddenly saw… that?

Source: AZStarnet.com (1, 2), Gizmodo

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Pittsburgh Schools Open Late Day After Super Bowl

Brett Singer — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:50:00 GMT

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Children belong in school.

Pittsburgh Public Schools opened two hours late today. Why? Well, the Steelers were in the Super Bowl. Duh.

And now that the Steelers won (great game, for what it's worth), the statement that school district spokesperson Ebony Pugh made on Friday seems prescient: "People will be staying up late; there will be some partying."

I have no doubt that Pittsburgh partied like it was 2006, when Pittsburgh also won, and schools were similarly delayed. But the game ended at 10pm. While it's very nice of the district to delay the start of school so that parents can have an extra hour or two to get over their hangovers (frankly, I could've used an extra couple of hours and I'm in New York), it seems like a ridiculous move. One parent, Latoya Taylor, is going to miss time at work because of the delay. Is Ben Roethlisberger going to reimburse her?

I hate to be a sourpuss. But I really think this is stupid. "The district hopes the delay will cut down on absenteeism." How about expecting people to be responsible enough to get up and get their kids ready for school? Or not keeping them up so late that they're overly tired in the morning? If a parent decides, as my mother did with opening day at Yankee Stadium, that a sporting event is worth missing school for, that's one thing. But when the district makes that decision for everyone, I don't like it.
Anyone from Pittsburgh want to weigh in? I mean, congrats on the win. Great game. But are you happy that schools were delayed two hours? Non-Pitt residents, how would you feel if this happened in your hometown?

Source: PittsburghLive

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Do Your Kids Watch The Super Bowl?

Brett Singer — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:30:00 GMT

This year, for the first time in many years, my friends and I are forgoing the family Super Bowl watching experience in favor of a visit to a local tavern. Basically, almost everybody has kids now, which means that by halftime, we all have to go home. Last year, when the New York Football Giants beat the New England Patriots (heh heh) in what was one of the biggest upsets in sports history, we were all back in our living rooms, watching it alone.

Is that a big deal? No. Would it have been more fun to watch the game with the guys, especially this catch by David Tyree (included here to torture Patriots fans)? Sure.

As it turns out, none of our children care about the game. They like to hang out together, but we can do that anytime. This way the fans can watch the game and only leave at halftime if its a blowout.

So that's my deal this year. I'm wondering about our readers. Do your children watch the Big Game? For that matter, do you? And if your kids do watch, how old are they?

My pick: Sunny is pulling for the Steelers, and I would join her. But the fact that the Cardinals haven't won in, like, 100 years or something, is making me root for them. That, Kurt Warner being really old (as The Onion points out), Edgerrin James getting a chance to win a Super Bowl after watching his old team The Colts win the year after he left, Arizona being the underdog... they get my rooting interest. That means nothing, of course. And I have nothing against the Steelers. They just won a couple of years ago, though.

So – big game or no big game, and kids or no kids?

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Morning News – Drunken Jokers With Bionic Limbs And Flying Cars

Brett Singer — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Happy Friday, everyone!

Comments on yesterday's Morning News got pretty heated. I considered doing nothing but stories about puppies, rainbows and sunshine today, but decided that was no fun. And as it turns out, the "Crossfire"-esque commenting has morphed into an interesting back and forth between persons of differing political persuasions. Thank you to everyone from both sides of the aisle who weighed in; check out the debate here.

Diane Sawyer appeared to be drunk during the Inauguration coverage on ABC. Was she celebrating Obama's victory? Is she a McCain voter trying to forget? No one knows. While it's not completely certain that she was nipping at the sauce, this video makes a darn good case for it.

Caroline Kennedy (Schlossberg) did indeed bail on her quest to be a Senator without the hassle of actually winning an election. The New York Times is reporting that "Problems involving taxes and a household employee" were uncovered during the vetting process, so she bowed out. Whenever information like this is "suddenly" discovered, I always wonder how it is that nobody knew about it until it was too late. As in, Ms. Kennedy (Schlossberg) must have known that she had a tax issue, right? Also, it's still unclear if New York Governor David Paterson would have picked Kennedy (Schlossberg) or not. Um, it kind of doesn't matter anymore, folks. Let it go. Paterson will reportedly announce his choice today; convention wisdom says Andrew "HUD? What's a HUD?" Cuomo will get Hillary Clinton's old seat. (Hillary is now officially Secretary of State, by the way – she started work yesterday.) UPDATE: I was wrong, wrong, wrong -- the Times is reporting that Governor Paterson has selected Kirsten Gillibrand as Hillary Clinton's replacement in the Senate. Ms. Gillibrand is a congresswoman from upstate NY who is mother to two young children and has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, according to the Times. I'm mentioning the mom thing because this is a parenting web site, and the NRA endorsement because that makes her a potentially controversial choice, since most Democrats aren't big NRA folks. (Gillibrand's official bio page is getting jammed with web traffic, but here's Google's cached version.)

Interesting tidbit about the Roberts Oath Flub (Flubgate, anyone?) – a certain Senator Barack Obama voted against the Chief Justice's confirmation in 2005.

In business news, the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the "conflicting reports" regarding Steve Jobs health. First he said he wasn't that sick, then he said he was leaving for six months, blah blah blah. Personally, I thought "hormone imbalance" sounded pretty serious when it was first announced. If only the SEC had been equally diligent about Bernie Madoff, poor Kevin Bacon wouldn't be reading the script for "Footloose 2". (I'm only joking about "Footloose 2." I hope. Kevin is looking for work though, so if you hear of anything, give him a ring.)

A very cool medical story from England: 19-year-old British college student Evan Reynolds now has a bionic hand. Reynolds lost his appendage three years ago, and can operate his new prosthetic limb by thought. ''It's so sensitive I can grip a bottle of water or a paper cup without crushing it and even swing a racket," he says. ''All I have to do is imagine picking something up or gripping it and the fingers and thumb move automatically." Like I said: very cool.

Oh, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for the 81st Academy Awards. Some were surprised that Heath Ledger got a Best Supporting Actor nod for his performance as The Joker in "The Dark Knight", but the real surprise to me was Robert Downey Jr.'s nomination for "Tropic Thunder." Not only is it a comedy, it was also a controversial one as I recall (that whole "retard" thing). Personally, I think Ledger will win. If he does, it won't be undeserved -- he gave an incredible performance. Brad Brevet says that Kate Winslet's nomination for "The Reader" is "fishy"; I admit that I couldn't read the full post, which actually quotes Academy voting rules. I was surprised that Clint Eastwood didn't get some love for "Gran Torino," but hey, you can't win 'em all.

The mother who named one of her children Adolf Hitler wants her kids back. "The parents insist they're not racists and want only to honor the heritage of the Third Reich," says the Daily News. What can one say to that?

Finally, someone has actually made a flying car! Terrafugia, the company that makes the vehicle (called the "Transition") calls it a "roadable aircraft," which doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. It goes 500 miles on a full tank of regular unleaded gasoline, and features folding wings. Bottom line: IT IS A CAR THAT FLIES. It also costs $194,000 and probably requires a good-sized garage with access to a ready supply of fuel. So it's not exactly ready for mass consumption. However, IT IS A CAR THAT FLIES. Did I mention that?

Have a great weekend!

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Woman Arrested For Breast Feeding At A Bar

Brett Singer — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Allanah Earley went to a Durham, Connecticut bar to have a couple of drinks. Nothing wrong with that, right? But the 36-year-old brought her baby. Hey, lots of us think that's fine as well. Then she started breast-feeding the baby, who is seven weeks old.

Two new acronyms have popped up as a result – DWB (Drinking With Baby, from NBC Connecticut) and BWI (Breastfeeding While Intoxicated, from ParentDish). BWI works better, I think. The official charge is "risk of injury to a minor", which sounds pretty, um, minor. At the moment, Earley is free on $10,000 bail.

Imperfect Parent asks, "Wonder where the breastfeeding advocates stand on this issue." Well, it's generally thought that drinking alcohol while breast-feeding is a bad idea. Especially if you literally drink alcohol WHILE YOU ARE BREAST-FEEDING. Like, have a couple of drinks, feed the kid, have another shot, and so on. That's what Allanah Earley is accused of: The Middletown Press says that when police interviewed Earley, she was visibly drunk, and admitted to officers that she'd had seven drinks. I'm guessing even the strictest La Leche Leaguer would suggest formula in that situation.

Poor kid. Even without the breast-feeding, mom's got some problems.

One report says that bar patrons called the police when Earley left the bar and "wandered out into the cold" with the baby, eventually finding her way to a friend's house, where she kept on drinking and breast-feeding. (Ah, reminds me of my college days… sorry, not funny.) In other words, the "concerned customers" didn't make the call while Earley was at the bar.

Would you do something if you saw a mom drinking and breast-feeding her baby at a bar? It's trickier than it sounds, I think – one the one hand, she has a right to do what she wants as long as it's legal. But as she becomes more and more intoxicated, the baby could be in danger, right? I'm not sure what I would do. How would you handle it?

Source: wfsb.com, others

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Do You Take Your Baby Bar Hopping?

Brett Singer — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:00:00 GMT

New York Citysearch writes:

"You had a baby. It happens. Despite consensus among suburbanites, you're not obligated to shed every aspect of your former self. In New York, at least, you can maintain some semblance of a social life." Then they offer a list of 5 "baby friendly" watering holes, where "in addition to spending quality time together, you can teach your child important life lessons--like how to squat above a toilet seat."

Right.

It's one thing if these bars are exclusively for parents and kids. "Baby Loves Bourbon" or something. One bar, Floyd, welcomes the "strollerati" during Happy Hour. The problem is that babies are not always pleasant drinking companions. If I'm at a bar knocking back a few and somebody's kid starts screaming, my strong preference is that said child not be present. And if you want to go grab a few brewskis, why not get a baby sitter? As a commenter on Gothamist puts it, "I dont [sic] bring a six pack to your day care, so dont [sic] bring your babies to the bar."

Let me put on my self-righteous, "parenting the planet" hat for a moment: Personally, I don't like the idea of babies being around excessive alcohol consumption. Whether or not someone is responsible for themselves is besides the point. Drunk people sometimes do dumb things. Why should your little bundle of joy get a pint of Guinness dumped on their head because some dope is upset that Brett Favre threw another interception? Or get hit with a piece of flying barstool when a different dope (or even the same dope) is mad that somebody looked at them funny? Now, let me take that hat off: it's up to you. Live and let live.

The other part of the "babies in bars" thing that I find irritating is the idea that, "you can maintain some semblance of a social life" after having kids. Maybe you can, but maybe you can't. When you have a baby, things change. You might not get to go out to bars the way you used to. Deal with it.

The flip-side to baby-friendly bars is baby UNfriendly bars. Brooklyn's Union Hall got a lot of flack back in February for their "no strollers, please" sign. What's especially irritating about the whining that ensued is the fact that if you can have a "babies welcome" bar, someone else should be able to have a "babies not welcome" bar. (This is similar to my notion that someone should be able to start "Up In Smoke Airlines" to cater to the nicotine crowd.)

How about our readers? Do you bring your kids to bars? Do you mind if other people do?

Source/Image: Citysearch

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Family Too Wasted (and Jailed) to Drive Home Infant

SunnyChanel — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

This story begs the question does this Indiana family have an embroidered pillow on their couch that reads “the family that drinks together, stays together”? If not, can we all pitch in and get them one?

According to the AP, the state police arrested a 24-year old woman for drunk driving. Sadly, her 1-year-old son was in the car. The officers called the boy’s father to come pick him up. When the dad arrived, they realized he was also drunk and arrested him on drunk driving charges. They then contacted the boy’s grandparents to take him home. Once Grandma and Grandpa got to the station they found the grandparents to also be wasted. Fortunately the grandmother wasn’t over the legal limit and the police escorted them and the boy back home. I think it’s time to hide the Schnapps and the keys.

Do You Have a Drinking Problem? Talk To the Kids' Doc.

JeanneSager — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:33:00 GMT

If your kid’s doctor asked you how much you drink would you tell her? According to a new study, most parents would. What’s more, they’d be more likely to tell a pediatrician if they feel they’ve got a problem.

The study in this month’s issue of the Journal of Pediatrics shows three quarters of parents with an admitted alcohol abuse problem said they would be willing to answer questions and take guidance from their child’s doctors. The same goes for three quarters of parents who reported they don’t have any substance abuse issues – they’re willing to let the pediatrician ask the questions.

Alcohol abuse is rarely a personal problem. Although you might be the only one drinking your liver into a pickled state, the affects extend to the children who watch you pass out night after night on the couch and the spouse who watches a chunk of the household funds being drank away. I can certainly see how it would qualify as a family health issue.

But there are parents who say they’re afraid their pediatrician wouldn’t be able to discern the difference between a social or occasional drink and alcoholism. To them I say: why do you have your child being evaluated by this person? If they don’t have the acumen to tell the difference, perhaps they’re overstepping their bounds with your child’s diagnoses as well.

Then again, what’s that AA saying? “Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery?” If you can’t do it for your kids, who will you do it for?

Image: DeClubz

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Woman leaves toddler in car while she goes to a bar

Brett Singer — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Although that sentence sounds like it's from some demonic Dr. Seuss rhyme, the story isn't particularly amusing.

Authorities say a Largo woman left a 2-year-old boy locked inside a car while she went into a bar.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office reports that customers at the St. Petersburg bar saw the child sleeping in the back seat of a white sedan with the windows rolled up and doors locked early Sunday morning. Security workers at the bar called the sheriff's office.

This next part would be funny if it didn't involve a little kid. When asked by the authorities how long she had been inside the Club 54 bar in St. Petersburg, "She told them she had only been there for about 20 minutes, but other customers claimed the woman had been there for at least an hour." I have to wonder if she somehow thinks that it would be OK to leave the kid locked in the car while she had a drink if it was only for 20 minutes. Does it make her a better or worse person that she didn't come up with a good lie, like, "I just had to use the ladies' room" or something? I guess it doesn't matter. By the way, this happened at 1:00am, in case you were wondering. Also, none of the news reports I read say that this was her son.

The woman, 29-year-old Caroline Kreitz, has been released from jail and the boy was taken by Child Protective Services.

Source: mysuncoast.com

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10 Naughty Things We Do to Our Kids (but keep doing anyway)

Cole Gamble — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Let’s face it; if you were to put secret surveillance on them 24/7, any parent would look like a putz. There are things that we do with our kids, when others aren’t about or are out of ear shot, that we maybe feel bad about. But not bad enough to stop doing.

#10: Laughing when your daughter farts.

#9: In a moment of weakness, grousing about one child to the other.

Your Four-year-old: Why does Dalton (the toddler) get to stay up?

You: Because he’s crazy and I’m tired of fighting him. He’s being a butthead.

YFYO: Yeah, he’s got a stinky head.

#8: When they get way too many Easter baskets from relatives, hiding one and keeping the candy contents to yourself.

#7: Making your spouse the bad guy. “Mommy wouldn’t like it if she saw what you’re doing.”

#6: Keeping your kid downstairs on a perpetual loop of Sesame Street because you want a beer/glass of wine.

#5: Forget to brush their teeth.

#4: The next night encouraging them to brush by telling them their breath smells like “dog food.”

#3: Let your kid, freshly bathed and wet, prance around the house naked playing her favorite character “Jungle Girl” for way longer than perhaps appropriate.

#2: Not being as diligent as you think you should about your own nudity around the kids.

#1: When you don’t have time to go to the park, telling them the “park is closed.”

What are your dirty parenting secrets?

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They say: Drinking with your kids makes them less drunk

Brett Singer — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:30:00 GMT

Now we've all gotten drunk. Fall down, sloppy, mess-making drunk. My first bad drinking experience involved vodka, straight up, in a garage during a thunderstorm. It ended badly. I had a couple of others, but not too many that included me puking my guts out. But it happens.

According to this article from Time magazine, it might happen less if you drink with your kids. But that's illegal, you say. The drinking age is 21. Well, yes, but not exactly. According to Time, "When Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984, it explicitly allowed kids to drink at home or in 'private clubs or establishments.' Similarly, under most state laws, it's legal for those under 21 to consume alcohol under certain conditions. Only six states, mostly rural ones, ban underage alcohol consumption completely."

This "have a drink with your kids" thing isn't a new idea. A recent Babble Bad Parent essay by Gretchen Roberts titled Booze Clues talks about the idea of making alcohol something commonplace rather than this big taboo thing, which only makes it more interesting. The Time Magazine article backs up this notion, quoting a paper from the 2004 Journal of Adolescent Health as saying, "Drinking with parents appears to have a protective effect on general drinking trends."

The problem, of course, is when "not uptight about alcohol" translates into "letting the kids get wasted in the basement with their friends." Drinking a glass of wine with dinner is very different from getting drunk. When I sat in that garage, swilling vodka straight from the bottle, it was partly about the alcohol but also partly about being young and stupid. (I'm not condoning it or calling it a "right of passage", nor am I saying it was a sin worthy of caning. Just being honest.) Drinking until you, ahem, hurl, is something that you should only do when you're young and stupid. The other time I got sick from drinking was in college and again, I drank too much and I paid the price. There were other people that I went to school with who got that wasted on a regular basis.

So should you drink with your kids? I don't know. Personally, I don't think kids need wine any more than they need soda. That doesn't mean that we present alcohol (or soda) as something off-limits and exciting. Neither is a particularly big deal in our house, and different people have different rules. As with so many things, behavior that a reasonable person can handle (letting kids have a sip of wine every now and then) can become something else entirely in the hands of an irresponsible moron (hosting a kegger at home.)

Do you think that letting your kids in on the drinking at home will make them more or less likely to overdo it with liquor someday?

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Teachers Fake Deaths to Scare Students Sober

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:02:00 GMT

Imagine you're called into a school assembly a few days before high school graduation and told that several of your beloved classmates were killed in a drunken driving auto crash. Terrible, right? Young lights ripped from a community.

Then imagibe the teachers involved in said assembly -- who had even brought in the cops to make it look legit -- told you it was all fake; it was just an attempt to scare you sober as graduation parties near.

Some students later held signs saying, "Death is real -- don't play with our emotions." While still others said the emotional shock was worth it if the event saved even one life.

I keep thinking about the poor kid sitting in the assembly who doesn't drink at all and just found out his friends "died." It seems there has to be a better way to send this message, but of course I don't know what it is.

If these were your kids -- what would you think: Going to far? Or worth it if one life is saved?

Substitute teacher shows up drunk

Brett Singer — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

During my time going to school in New York City, I saw a lot of things. However, I never once saw a teacher pull a kid to the front of the class so the other students could berate him. I also never had a substitute teacher show up drunk.

In Richardson Texas, Thomas Brownlee arrived at school with liquor on his breath and, one assumes, sadness in his heart. Another teacher figured out what was happening and the drunken doof was removed from the class. Apparently, he was "too intoxicated to complete a sobriety test." In my opinion, if you're too drunk to take the test, that should mean you fail. Sort of like the SATs.

Once you get past "wow, that's really terrible" and move on to "that would make a great SNL skit" ("1+1 ain't 2! It's misery! You try being married to that woman!" etc.), it makes me wonder how many times this sort of thing has happened. In fourth grade, I remember our regular teacher, not a sub, had a nervous breakdown of some kind right in front of us. We were on our way to a field trip, and a substitute teacher was on his way to take over the class. "You don't realize what I do for you!" she screamed. It was fairly frightening while it was happening, but once she left, we actually all thought it was pretty funny. No one, as far as I know, was scarred for life; in fact, I think we were over it by lunch. I'm not excusing her behavior, which in retrospect was amazing and not in a good way. And showing up drunk to teach is a bad thing. I'm just saying that kids are resilient. Hopefully the school fires the inebriated educator and doesn't make a big deal out of it to the students.

image: Hoboken411.com
Note: this is not a photo of the teacher. Not as far as I know, anyway.

Dad's Monkey is Mom's Monkey, Too

Adrienne Martini — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:00:00 GMT

In theory, kicking your substance of choice -- whether that is booze, smokes or something more illegal -- should be a piece of cake. Just stop doing it, right? The reality of quitting is a completely different beastie. But cleaning up is even more important when there is a small person in the works.

Moms have a biological reason to stop smoking/drinking/etc when the bun is in the oven and are often able to use that as a tool to quit. Dads, however, seem to get a free pass. A new study out of the University of Washington indicates that dad's habits have a huge impact on mom's behavior, too.

Researchers studied a group of young (21-24 year old) parents. Almost all of those new moms who quit while pregnant were back at the bar and/or bong two years later. Dads didn't appear to cut back their use at all, which created a household environment that made it nearly impossible for mom to stay sober.

Perhaps it may be time, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board suggests, to stop giving dads a free pass. Or, at least, to realize that they contribute something other than sperm to a growing child.

Drinking In Youth Won't Just Break Your Mama's Heart

Kelly Mills — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:02:00 GMT

I think it is just plain messed up when any teen wild oat sowing has repercussions later in life. I mean, how can adolescents really appreciate that current behavior might lead to problems when they are fifty? I'm still stunned I managed to fill out my college applications and send them in, I was so short-sighted. Well, it turns out that being a lush when you are a youngster makes you more at risk for certain problems, and not just being branded "the Beer Bong Queen" by your cohort and having the name stick with you at your high school reunion.

Researchers interviewed 2,818 people (in scientific terms we call that "a good honkin' sample") about their drinking histories and other lifestyle stuff like smoking and exercise. They found that people either tended to drink heavily in their youth, and then taper off in middle-age; or drink moderately throughout their lives. (Note that none of my roommates was ever on the latter trajectory.) Those who partied hardy were a third more likely to have metabolic syndrome, which is a grouping of risk factors for heart disease that includes abdominal obesity, low good cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other stuff. In other words, young drunkery might mean heart problems later. So you know, kids, don't do drugs.

Pregcellent: Women React Strongly To the Caffeine-Miscarriage Study

Kelly Mills — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:29:00 GMT

A friend of mine had an appointment for artificial insemination, and the clinic told her she should go on bedrest for three days following the procedure to avoid any risk of miscarriage. Well, my friend looked up a bunch of studies, and according to her research, bedrest not only doesn't reduce miscarriage risk after insemination, it has just slightly higher odds of miscarriage. But I can see why the clinic advised this: They want to avoid the idea that any maternal action resulted in a pregnancy loss, and in a way it's exactly how we treat pregnancy nowadays. Don't drink at all. Be careful exercising. Avoid sushi and brie and meat that isn't cooked all the way through. And now, quit coffee or tea, or at the very least, cut way back, or you'll have to live with the fact that if only you had been willing to give it up, you might have had a viable pregnancy. All this, despite the fact that the vast majority of miscarriages are likely the result of genetic or chromosonal issues that mean the fetus would never make it to term, even if you lived in a plastic bubble and only consumed special nutrients and filtered water.

And this is just one of the things that has raised the ire of lots of women towards the latest study connecting higher caffeine consumption to an increased risk of miscarriage. The research has been called out for the small sample size and the methodology of interviewing women post-miscarriage about caffeine consumption. And it is also raising the hackles of women fed up with being told they should do this and that or they are selfish moms. The fact that environmental toxins and pollutants have not received the same coverage was pointed out, as was the fact that some of the taboo behaviors are the norm in countries with comparable miscarriage rates. And lots of other stuff too, because I think many ladies are at a breaking point with being advised against things that they like having in their lives, pregnant or not.

Look, there are certainly things that have strong connections to issues in pregnancy, and most of those (like smoking) are pretty obvious because they have bad repercussions for non-pregnant people too. And of course, even those known hazards are not a guarantee of problems for the individual, believe it or not. But the more tenuous connections to things like coffee are getting to be a bit much. And I think what's sad about it is that almost every woman I know who had a pregnancy loss blamed herself on some level, or at least questioned her own behavior, and I include myself in that number. And it's sad because the recrimination comes in situations where most likely no one could have done anything to prevent the miscarriage, not unless they had the ability to change the chromosonal makeup of a fetus that was never going to survive.

Breaking News: Salon Finds a Non-Dysfunctional Family

Kelly Mills — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:35:00 GMT

In these modern times, claiming to be from a dysfunctional family is about as novel as shopping online for gifts. At least one movie studio always comes out with a film about a zany, eccentric family who alternately abuse each other and teach each other about the power of love; news sources print columns about how to survive holiay dinners with the relatives; and some people drink too much and pass out under the strings of lights that snake over many storefronts and rooftops. Estranged family members are noticable by their absence, and at least one person is in rare form at every gathering. Awww, joy to the world.

I guess that's why I actually noticed this bit on Salon's Table Talk about a non-dysfunctional family. Or at least a family that loves each other and likes each other. Because it got me to wondering: Is dysfunctional just the standard nowadays? Have we learned to survive past romantic visions of what family and holidays should be by becoming acutely aware of the failings of our own brood? If the majority of people come from painful homes filled with difficult people, then maybe it's more normal to find family hard than it is to find solace in our flesh and blood. I would be shocked if family now was so vastly different than family in times past, so what's changed is our perspective. Is it true that most people come from a broken place, and does knowing that help? Or do we just expect too much from the ones we love?

Wine OK While Pregnant in UK

Madeline Holler — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:29:00 GMT

Pregnant women, a toast! To the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and their reasonable guidelines that a small glass of wine everyday won't harm the fetus.

Of course, if you're getting out your scorecards to move booze from the “forbidden” category to the “in small amounts,” write it in pencil. Leaders at the British Department of Health are still pushing for total alcohol abstinence from conception to birth. The two agencies will duke it out and try to come up with definitive guidelines. So, who knows what they’ll say next week and the week after that.

Public health officials, doctors and midwives for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said there is no evidence of harm to a fetus from a small glass of wine or a pint of lager daily. These NICE (awwwww) officials said, though, that drinking possibly increases the risk of miscarriage (oh, is THAT all?).

This guideline contradicts the British Department of Health recommendation that women abstain completely from alcohol from conception to birth, saying there is evidence that even small amounts of alcohol could lead to varying degrees of fetal alcohol syndrome and other disorders.

Personally, I didn’t drink during either of my pregnancies. During the first one, I was just trying to be perfect. During the second one, well after I had abandoned perfection, I could barely stay awake as it was. Even a sip would have sent me to bed for yet another nap.

What do you think? Are they more realistic in Great Britain or just in denial? Did you drink much while pregnant? Did you want to drink but abstain out of fear? Evidence? Judgment from others?