Chris Seger knew her son Sean would party hard the night of his graduation—and she knew she’d start worrying the moment the door clicked shut behind him. So the Calgary mom took matters into her own hands, inviting the entire class of 2007 from Sean’s small high school to her acreage west of the city for the post-convocation bash. There, with the help of a couple of other parents, she assembled an environment for teenage boozing that Elmer the Safety Elephant himself might have endorsed.
Even advocates of so-called “safe partying” stop short of endorsing what seems the surest safeguard of all. “Supervised drinking,” as it is sometimes called, may be reducing the risk of physical injury, says Candace Lind, a nursing professor at the University of Calgary. “But you’re also sending the message that it’s okay for them to drink.” Lind is no hard-liner: her version of safe partying for teenagers entails emergency contact numbers and rock-solid arrangements for sober transportation.
Small wonder, then, that some parents have begun questioning the orthodoxy behind zero tolerance. “If the statistics aren’t changing, then that tells me the status quo isn’t working,” says Tim Clarke, a 45-year-old graphic designer from Halifax with two teenaged kids. “I think if my 17-year-old came to me and said she’d like to have some friends over and have a few beers, I’d be inclined to consider it.
To David Teplin, a clinical psychologist from Richmond Hill, Ont., whether you allow your teenagers to drink at home is a lot less important than the sort of conversations you have with them about alcohol. “This includes what constitutes responsible drinking, how alcohol affects the body, what constitutes impairment,” he says.
A beer at home now and then, an occasional glass of wine at dinner and maybe they won't end up fall down, puking drunk the first chance they get. I've never met anyone (who wasn't an alcoholic) who drinks as much or as hard as small town kids with strict parents.
Just say no. Don't give your kids permission to drink. They're KIDS.
Yes. Drink in their own homes. Oh, I forgot. They can’t afford homes. Now I need a drink.
This has been happening for decades .. nothing new here ..
yeah my kid's friend's parent was one of those let them drink at home types I got a call from my kid to pick her up - 1 kid had fallen down the stairs and knocked out a tooth, another one threw up in his sister's car on the way home, another one was passed out cold on the lawn
Nope. We as parents do not drink. My children can but not here. They are adults and have always respected that .
I grew up in a neighbourhood with many Italian families. Teens were having wine or beer with supper with their parents as part of their suppers. These were also the kids that didn't go to parties and get drunk, there was no taboo to it. They would have 2 or 3 over an evening.
Ummm...early alcoholism!! starttheparty
😅.. Like seriously.. Goes to show how stupid parents really are. I'm in my mid-sixties and they did and thought the same things, way back when. The kids that were allowed to drink at home thought that it was OK to drink outside the home.. History repeats it's self..
Not if it's Prince Andrew's home.
According to you it's ok for the PM to have a proven track record of racist behaviour so I hate to hear your opinions on child rearing...
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