CELEBRATE SAFE, CELEGBRATE SOBER: PARENTS, BE AWARE OF UNDERAGE DRINIKING AT HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS
by Carol Braun
December 02, 2008
The holiday season is often accompanied by a huge spike in underage drinking and, according to several recent studies, parents are often the culprit. Authors of these studies say that parents who give their children alcohol are setting their kids up for more dangerous underage drinking.
Often, parents believe that allowing their children to drink
alcohol at home or in another supervised setting is a safe way to
allow young people to drink. However, ANY underage drinking – a
glass of wine at a holiday dinner, a beer while watching the
football game, or toast of champagne as you ring in the New Year –
is proven to contribute to future alcohol use by teens in
unsupervised, high-risk situations.
These studies also show that youth who are allowed to drink alcohol
at home also drink more frequently, engage in “high risk drinking”
(binge drinking, drinking and driving, etc), and get involved in
more alcohol- related traffic crashes. So, parents who believe they
are opting for something safer are actually leading their children
down a much riskier path.
The same researchers have found that parents who ban their
children’s alcohol use at home significantly reduce the risk of
creating teenage drinkers. Parents may not realize
it, but they make a huge impact on their children’s drug and
alcohol decisions. Parents who set clear rules on alcohol use for
their children, follow through on consequences they have
established, and have regular conversations with their children
about alcohol use, are more likely to have children that choose not
to drink as teens.
CELEBRATE SAFE, CELEGBRATE SOBER: PARENTS, BE AWARE OF UNDERAGE DRINIKING AT HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS
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