The BBC is reporting on a new study that finds teenagers drinking at home with their parents are less likely to binge drink. According to the study 75% of 14-year-olds had tried alcohol.
The question is: are they learning to drink from their parents in a socially responsible environment, or are they learning behind some bushes in the park, or in a bar where they should not be in the first place?
"The chances are if they are in the latter position they are learning to binge drink, they are hiding their drinking, they can't talk to their parents about it.
"Drinking in the home environment, if it is done properly, can teach young people respect for alcohol, and how to consume in moderation."
This leads to disagreement with an earlier call for Britain to prosecute parents who let their kids drink. If drinking at home decreases binge drinking (which for now is the kind of drinking we hate, until it becomes drinking in front of kids, or in public, or at a bar) then in the name of preventing binge drinking should we punish parents who allow it?
The researchers do, however, call for increasing the price of alcohol to prevent underage drinking. Which makes sense, since if there is one thing we can all agree on, it's that kids today have no way of getting their hands on controlled substances without buying them from properly licensed tax-paying stores, and it should cost more for mature individuals like me to have a night out. With your mom.
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