Alcohol drinking in front of children

Parents please take a note!

Is it OK to drink and intoxicated in front of your children?

Parents must decide their own attitudes and values about not only drinking alcohol, also about drinking in front of children.

Setting a good example and being a role model to your own children is not that easy.

Once you are a parent the responsibility of parenting also includes teaching values, attitudes and behavior not only at home also in public.

If you think you are drinking and not getting intoxicated (red wine once or twice a week) and it is okay to drink in front of children then reconsider your thinking process.

What happens when parents drink in front of children?

• Never get intoxicated in front of your child. Remember – children will watch you all the time and learn from your behavior.
• After you come back from work if you start drinking, it sets a bad example. Child will start thinking “earning is stressful, job is stressful” and they believe – to unwind the stress alcohol is a mean of stress relief.
• Children will also get the feeling that drinking as a means of relating to others or to pass time.
• If you drink in front of child, kids might get anxious about your behavior and feel worried about parents. Seeing a parent drunk make children feel worried, less comforted.
• They will stop approaching parents for any problems.
• It will be hard for children to accept parents as role model if they observe negative effect of intoxication. Relationship will drift apart.
• Research studies on parent drinking reveled that nearly one in five children felt embarrassed by their parents drinking habit. Children understand more about parents drinking – why and what could be the reasons. Whether the reason is big or small, they feel the changes in parent’s behavior and it can be alarming for them.

As a parent, we should understand that our behavior has an enormous influence on young adults. This is when kids copy their parents and try new things. Talk to your child about bad effect of getting intoxicated.

Use common sense when you are around your children!

• In case if you drink in front of your child, due to your culture – please keep it in moderation. This way children are more likely to grow up to drink in moderation as well in the future. Have an honest discussion with children about alcohol and its effect – binge drinking and how to drink responsibly. Explain different strength of various types of alcohol and consequences of drinking. Set the ground rules for drinking at home and no drinking policy for children.
• To make child understand what is responsible drinking is, drink within the low risk alcohol unit guidelines which is 14 units per week and spreading it to 3 or more days a week
• Children will notice your behavioral patterns on different occasions when you drink. Instead of confusing them with your behavior stick to the lower risk unit guidelines.

The choice of drinking or not drinking is up to the parents. However, parents might want to have a better thinking about the kind of humans you want your kids to become.

Reference:

• http://sobercollege.com/
• https://www.thesun.co.uk/
• Image credit: Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Image credit: Photo by cottonbro from Pexels (Free for commercial use)