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Alcohol for Children?
Absurd!!
In a recent article by Victoria Brett for the
Associated Press, Ms. Brett discusses the pros and
cons of giving wine to children.
The possible pros were
listed as
1. Gourmet family says
wine is life training.
2. A Southern European custom adopted by American
foodie culture.
3. Justification that pop and processed food is
worse.
4. Texas and Minnesota allow parents to give their
children alcohol legally.
5. Giving children wine is done in good taste only
with fancier meals.
6. The practice of giving children alcohol is
educational according to some parents.
7. The child may be able to isolate flavors and
become knowledgeable about wine to make her mother
proud.
8. One mother assures that she limits the amount
and adds water to the alcohol, stating it is better
than her child chewing on lead paint
9. The practice is common in other parts of the
world.
I hardly know where to
begin to encourage parents to ignore this shocking
justification for what I consider potential child
abuse. Would you put a cigarette in their sweet
little lips? Would you inject them with a bit of
heroin or a tiny line of cocaine. Those practices
are pleasurable and harmful as well. Or, are wino
parents simply trying to justify their own
self-destructive brain-destroying behavior? Good
for the child? Antioxidants come in beautiful
fruits and vegetables eliminating the need for
fancy bottles with poisonous ingredients and
expensive labels. Giving a child alcohol, no matter
how you dress it up to seem snooty, connoisseur-ish
or progressively hip, in my opinion, is wrong.
In my thirty years of
practice, alcohol has had a strong presence at a
multitude of destroyed families from failed
marriages and infidelity to incest and child
beatings. Alcohol combined with street drugs have
killed beautiful teenagers with their whole lives
ahead of them. Adult behaviors must be tempered
with wisdom, full knowledge of the consequences and
the ability to take necessary precautions. That is
why smoking, drinking, sex, bars, driving, and
military service have age limits. They can be
dangerous, even deadly and must remain optional.
The child cannot be expected to make an educated
choice. A parent supplying food and drink to a
child is rarely optional for the child. Good
parents know that children can and must wait until
they are older.
People in other countries
have many backward practices that are scorned here
in the States. A photograph of a five year old
boy's arm being crushed because he stole food in a
marketplace comes to mind, as does wife beating,
and putting to death female babies. Perhaps the
U.S. could lead European and other countries away
from the practice of sharing alcohol with their
children at their family celebrations rather than
to adopt the senseless practice here.
Pediatric experts,
psychologists and many educated parents agree that
giving alcohol, even in small amounts can alter
brain development, is toxic and increases the
likelihood of addiction the younger you start. If a
parent breaks the law and pours their child an
alcoholic drink, the child may learn to adore wine
but she will also learn to break rules whenever she
wishes. Not good parenting anyway you spin
it.
©2009, Molly
Barrow
* * *
Dr. Molly
Barrow holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is
the author of the new book, Matchlines:
A revolutionary New Way of looking at relationships
and making the right choices in
love. She is an
authority on relationship and psychological topics,
a member of the American Psychological Association
and a licensed mental health counselor. Dr. Molly
has appeared as an expert on NBC, PBS, KTLA, and in
O Magazine, Psychology Today, Newsday, MSN.com,
Match.com, Women's Health and Women's World. Please
visit: www.askdrmolly.com
or Take the new relationship compatibility test,
Match Lines Systems for Successful Relationships
for Singles, Couples and Business at
www.DrMollyBarrow.com.
Molly has a radio program, Your Relationship
Answers at www.blogtalkradio.com/drmollybarrow
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