Sponsored by
Are we to blame for children's drinking problems?
ANY accident and emergency doctor will tell you that bingeing on alcohol is not necessarily the prerogative of youngsters on sink estates.
The overworked medic on the weekend overnight shift will describe people from all social backgrounds, as equally prone to falling over in a stupor.
It's just that some are more covert in terms of how and where they do the drinking.
Of the groups of teenagers around town and city centres at night, some will be those in designer labels who have too much cash for everything and spend a large proportion of it on regular over-consumption.
Others will be youngsters who don't have much money but spend what they have on drink.
Many are "popped-up" most nights of the week; some just go wild at the weekend.
That's what they do and, bad though it is, most of them only pose a nuisance or danger as such to themselves, when they fall over and bang their heads, pass out or begin to vomit.
Then there are those who are rowdily drunk, hanging about street corners, parks and pedestrian precincts, encouraging each other to bother those around them in their increasingly giddy or aggressive state.
It's only right that, while we're talking about tackling the youngsters who pose a problem with their public drunkenness and anti-social behaviour, we should also be examining our conscience as parents and as a society about why they're doing it as well as what to do about it.
Each successive generation has wrung its hands over young drunks and their yobbish behaviour, because every generation has had its youngsters who experiment with alcohol and do it in a public, ostentatious way.
In the days of Dixon of Dock Green, they were given a clip around the ear by the bobby on the beat and moved on, leaving their bottles behind.
That kind of ticking off wouldn't work now; the perpetrator and his mates would probably just stand there and laugh.
Threatened with anything as ineffectual as an Asbo? They'd laugh even harder.
For every group out there posing a public nuisance and possibly egging each other on to commit crimes above and beyond being under 18 and drinking in a public place, there are crowds of even younger children gathering in bedrooms or parks to drink a stash of alcopops, or wine and spirits filched from their parents or bought for them by an older friend.
Why is teenage drinking and drink-related anti-social behaviour a much more prevalent problem now? Is it that generally our children are much better off than they ever were, that drink is too cheap and retailers too slack, some parents too lazy to regulate their own or their children's drinking, and society in general buys too much into alcohol as a social lubricant, entertainer and unwinder?
All of the above play their part. Moreover, the perceived notion, in spite of the health education messages, is still that alcohol is not just a natural part of life but actually enhances life.
Most of the people I know have been happy to drink a couple of glasses of wine at home in front of the children and at a certain age, gently introducing them to the world of alcohol with a half a glass of wine once a week.
Surely, in doing so we cannot be condemned by accusations that we're actually setting our children firmly on the road to perdition? It's a fair assumption, isn't it, that if we adults drink responsibly then our children will, too? Maybe not.
A friend describes her son's recent 16th birthday party: "I know their age group can be a bit wild, due to drink being rather daring and exciting to them. They simply don't know their limits.
"Anyway, we told people not to bring drink and provided pop plus enough weak little beers and alcopops for everyone to have a couple of alcoholic drinks if they wanted.
"I felt we got the balance right and there was no use pretending they didn't drink. After all, if we didn't provide anything, a few of them might have a few before they came or smuggle bottles in – and we'd be picking up the pieces.
"It all went fine, except that one girl was found upstairs in a corner in a near-comatose and vomiting state. The girl she arrived with admitted they'd been drinking vodka at her house as they got ready beforehand. I drove the sick girl home and she was ill for a good 24 hours.
"When I told her parents the full story they were horrified about the extent of the boozing, because they said they have a rule of never drinking at home, and have not introduced their children to alcohol at all."
The good news in that situation is that the rest of those teenagers were perfectly fine and compos mentis when they left the party. One out of 50 is not bad.
It seems pointless that the state should impose rules on parents, replacing self-regulation of the if, when and how to introduce youngsters to alcohol. All parents surely know the dangers inherent in alcohol. But there are clearly those who, in spite of the risks, allow their children of 11 or 13 or 15 to enjoy open season on drinking, at home or in the street.
And there are those who impose abstinence, but their children still drink to excess.
There would parents who ignore bans or regulations because that doesn't suit them or they are too lazy to curb their own or their teenagers' behaviour and we'd have those who ignore it because they resent being told how to raise their children.
Result: a big fat waste of legislative time and money on rules that can't be properly imposed or policed.
Clearly the many reasons that contribute to young people's abuse of alcohol are complex and won't be easily fixed by interfering with parenting in this way.
One cheaper option surely lies in offering young teens affordable and easily-available local activities, making them feel part of something other than a street-corner gang that boozes to take the edge of their state of complete boredom.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Three-inch blanket of snow heading our way today
- Alan Shearer in list of favourites for Leeds and England jobs: Latest odds
- Barnsley’s Keith Hill invokes Fawlty Towers over link with Leeds job
- McCormack feels United search can be narrowed down
- Redfearn throws down gauntlet as queue builds at Elland Road
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
