What? Seriously? If this is true, "I'm going to die!" (I'm not serious... I've heard it on some TV show ). Sometimes it seems to me that we parents have lost our way, in fact, we've lost all our compass points, in relation to how we educate and/or accompany children and adolescents on this exciting journey that is 'reaching adulthood'. For the record, I wrote 'sometimes'. because I also find a lot of sensible parents who, with mistakes and everything, not only do the best they know how, but every day they overcome a little.
And yes: I better get down to business, because the thread is running out. This is about moms or dads who allow their offspring (still small, not teenagers) to taste alcohol - beer or wine generally - at celebrations or other events. And I thought that this practice had been banished from families! One cannot help but wonder, what use is all the information we have about EVERYTHING? Is it that there are still those who do not know that drinking alcohol is a risk for developing organisms? (and drinking it regularly or excessively is dangerous for anyone).
When we were little it was more common for a child with a very cold to be given milk with some liquor, that they were allowed to drink coffee before the age of 10, than at the insistence of the little one, the mother would end up allowing him to take a couple of puffs on a cigarette during a family meal ... The example is everything, and when we normalize our relationship with toxics (okay, we take the coffee out of the group, right?) We give a message of acceptance towards the substances. But if we are also the ones who started, uf! (“I just bought you your first pack of cigarettes so you won't buy it there”, this would be funny if you didn't want to cry).
The tastes: a risky and unnecessary practice.
It turns out that due to the lack of common sense for which we characterize ourselves, the AAP journal “Pediatrics” published in February of this year a work called "Parents Who Supply Sips of Alcohol in Early Adolescence: A Prospective Study of Risk Factors". One of the questions that the researchers initially asked was whether Given the high rates of alcohol consumption in early adolescence, there were differences between those who had previously had a drink in the family environment, and those that don't.
Psychiatry professor John E. Donovan is convinced that parents should not be providers of alcohol for their daughters and sons, since the “tastes”, which is how this initiation practice is popularly called, could be related to the initiation alcohol consumption at an early age (12, 13, 14 years). It looks like there are mothers and fathers who consider that a child between the ages of 10 and 12/13 may be ready to have a drink with the parent. As is to be expected, the first time they drink beer or wine, they are not able to finish the amount that is put on them; but one of the studies reviewed by Pediatrics in this prospective investigation of other works, relates having tried alcohol before sixth grade (6th grade in Spain) with getting drunk or consuming at 14 years of age.
Drinking alcohol early, is it that dangerous?
as a need for mothers and fathers to be a little aware that it is healthy.The family model.
Parents, as an example that we are, should gather consistency, and this is not always the case. It is common sense that if you abuse medications, illegal drugs, tobacco or alcohol, you are likely to be imitated. Regarding consuming (adults) in family celebrations, if it is sporadically, it does not have to have more consequences, because in family education, there is also an implicit message that childhood or maturity are different, and we cannot always do the same things. For example, it doesn't occur to me to climb trees like I did in the past, but I can still jump; And my children, although they yearn to grow up (like all children) know very well where they can go and where they cannot. They cannot (nor do they know how to drive), they cannot go shopping alone, or provide themselves with clothes when they break, they can walk 10 kilometers, but not 100, etc.
What I mean by this is that the fact of seeing my mother having a beer at a given moment is very different from if it were a habitual practice, and especially if it is spoken as a family and the positions are exposed (communication and verbalizing are very important). In this communication we can also expect children to ask questions and be curious.
And I remember again that it is totally inappropriate for us to give them the cup, because although the argument "is that it is only for adults" is very hackneyed, it is exactly what we should believe. Or do you give the car keys to the 10? Do you give an adult medication to a child of 8? Do you let the 11-year-old go out at night? There are things that are for adults, because the elderly (or at least from an age that could be between 16 and 21) should know how to solve unforeseen events, make decisions accordingly, etc.
It doesn't seem like a very good idea to help them "burn out", firstly because when you stop being a child you will not be a child again, and you will get fed up with being an adult with all those years ahead of you; second because they are not really prepared to do according to what things, the consequences can be very negative.