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Drinking Around Children; Is It Damaging Them?
I was raised by an alcoholic father so I was witness to a parenting drinking alcohol from a very young age and I do not believe for one moment that the actual seeing him drinking it caused me any harm at all, the fact that he was an alcoholic did. Is drinking around children damaging them at all is the question of the day.
I am not a big drinker and only on the odd occasions have alcohol in the house, as we speak I have 2 bottles in my fridge, one bottle of wine and one bottle of blue wicked, left over from a girls night out a few weeks ago.
My children have seen me drinking alcohol, never enough for them to ever see me slightly tipsy, but they do know its drink for adults. My thirteen year old daughter has had the odd Alco Pops bottle too.
Perhaps because I was raised by an alcoholic parent I am more relaxed with the alcoholic rule, I do not see alcohol as evil in fact I want my kids to know that adults drink it in safe moderation and it’s not something we should ever hide.
I have only ever taken the children to pubs during the day or to family celebrations and if the children are with me I tend not to drink. I would be disgusted to see a drunken parent in charge of a child.
I have a fear of drunken men, I hate when the husband goes out and comes back early, or if the children are still awake when he arrives home, even if just tipsy. He is certainly not allowed to pick them up.
“Heavy drinking by parents is doing so much damage to children that a national inquiry into the scale of the problem is needed, two influential charities demand”
While I agree heavy drinking is never something that should be consumed around children, an odd glass of wine can do no harm.
Around 2.6m children in the UK live in a household where at least one parent’s drinking puts them at serious risk of neglect. The Guardian reveals. This is concerning.
I have never and would never get drunk around my children and feel those parents that do are abusing their children as they cannot meet the needs of a child while under the influence of large quantities of alcohol.
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I too had an alcoholic father, but i don’t think its affected me at all. The most i have drank since having my daughter is 2 pints. And that was when she was in bed for the night. I don’t drink regularly, i just have a couple every now n then n i would never be drunk around her. But i don’t think its wrong to drink in front of ur children. It shows them what responsible drinking is x
I would never get drunk around children.. my parents drank but not excessive and not all rhe time, i think it gave me a healthier attitude towards alcohol as I saw it being enjoted but not abused and being given a little on special occasions allowed me to experiment in the safety of our home.. unlike a few people I know whos parents had a different attitude and who want to get as drunk as possible as often as they can – even around children
Yes il have a glass of wine when Ains is in bed but only the one because I know I cannot handle my drink but I wouldn’t let myself get absolutely paralytic because I need to be in the real world to look after my child x
I think if ur children grow up seeing their parents drink a lot and often it will encourage drinking my family aren’t big drinkers only on special occasions and I’m similar . Where as my ex parents drank every weekend and he need to drink at least 3/4 times a week ! I think of u dont glamorise drinking then kids won’t feel the need to x
I rarely drink and when I do its one or two. Bt never in front of my son, just because I don’t drik in the day, so its only when he’s in bed that I drink. If we go for a meal his dad will have 1/2 pints in front of him but I don’t seee the problem with it
My mum drank. It was horrendous. Bottles and bottles of white lightning at a sitting . It left her incapable of taking care of anyone. The foulest poison would come out of her mouth and she would tell my brothers and i things. Bad things. We worried she would pass out and choke, or not wake up. She would try to get me to buy it for her and if i said no it was a slap.
Her drinking made me my little brothers parent till she was sober. The rages, the binge drinking, the sleeping for days, hangovers, it was hell.
Ive got five children and i will never drink. I havent for twelve years now. They will never see me drunk or tipsy and i wont allow alcohol in my house apart from the odd bottle of baileys my partner likes.
I do not want my kids to think alcohol is ok because in my view its not.
I think probably i should be more relaxed about it, but drunks frighten me. Alcohol frightens me as i know too well the damage it causes when drink is taken to the extreme.
I just cant bear the thought of it.
Im not saying anyone who drinks is wrong, i just think im flawed in that sense and wish alcohol would just disapear from the planet.
I grew up with a mum that drinks, she still does, a full big bottle of that cheap crap 3quid wine a nite. I hate it and bcz of that i don’t like to drink around my lo x
I don’t see anything wrong with having a few drinks around your children. As long as you’re not drunk/tipsy.
I don’t like getting drunk anyway. I just don’t like the feeling of it.
I always explain to my eldest (3) that they’re grownup drinks x
I drink, but not when my daughters around. I don’t believe it will do her damage I’m just not a big drinker anyway I only have say one glass every blue moon. For example right now I’m at me dads .. I still have a bottle of WKD from BEFORE my daughter was conceived .. and she’s 14 months :O. When my daughters older she will be told that it’s a drink for adults but she’ll also be told it’s fine in small moderation, plus I’d rather she had A drink (not getting drunk) in the house x
my mom and dad arnt big on drink either..if we have a party my dad has the odd shandy and then coke, my mom has 2-3 halfs of woodepecker lol..i ahve had my mad days when i would get drunk and not care..but now iv got my babies i wouldn’t get drunk around them and not touched a drink in about a year..not bothered about it if i was to have 1 it would be 1 or 2 and iv taken reanne to the pub beofre but family 1 where there’s been fun days or bouncy castle etc.. she knows its an adult drink and never seen me drunk so in moderation its fine xx
I don’t drink around my kids I don’t even drink when there in bed I wait untill I have a night out once or twice a year lol x
i’ve drunk a glass or two after Lewis has gone to bed but i dont even get tipsy if children r in the house , yes when my step son first stayed over at new yr when he was 16 we let him drink with us but not so he was drunk just a lil tipsy , i dont think it harms a child seeing a parent drink but i think its bad if the child sees u bent hugging a toilet bowl throwing ur guts up after the fact is xx
I don’t understand ppl getting drunk any way with out kids being involved. Admittedly I have been completely drunk 3 times in my life (before I had my son) but I all ways woke up thinking why did I do it cos I’ve paid to feel crap. Since my son was born in September 2010 I’ve had 3 drinks. 1 at 2 seperate new years and 1 when we moved into our new house. I will never have more then one if I’m looking after my son that night or the next day
me and my family are very much a drink on specail occasions and never to excess so in this case i dont see the harm but i do understand from what i have ead there is a huge problem with alocholism in the country and the drinking that some of you saw growning up was not healthy.
I don’t see anything wrong with drinking around children. I often do around my son. He also comes to the pub with me (a weatherspoons) once a week for lunch with his nan and granddad. Im never drunk or tipsy around him. I think that its peoples behaviour that can affect them.
I had a alcholic as a father I hate seeing people getting pissed while there kids are playing, a small glass of wine with lunch yes by when there doing shots and drinking bottles of wine etc it’s wrong! My oh won’t even drink a beer in front of my son and gets the pee taken out of him by his friends until he explaines he don’t want my child seein him drink and thinking its okay to drink
I have the odd glass of wine ( or lambrini) in front of the kids and don’t see anything wrong with it. I am the same around them. However when ppl drink large amounts and become abusive etc then that’s defo a no no xx
Drinking one glass won’t do any damage. Your showing your child that one is all you need
Just to balance what I wrote on this before about my mum drinking and the effect it had.
I have three brothers from my mum. my eldest brother was a very heavy drinker for many years as a result of abuse he suffered at my mothers hands and he has health problems now. My middle brother who was sheltered from all of that is a drinker and my youngest brother is too.
When I was younger I was too for a while. I thought if my mum could do it so could I and found out I had a high tolerance to alcohol. I could drink many under the table and still walk home in heels but ive never seen what others see in it. To me it doesnt make me happy or feel better and im dam sure my mum doesnt either, she drinks because she needs it not because she wants too.