Mum Seeks Advice on Dangers Of Alcohol After Young Daughter Was Invited to Champagne Breakfast

A mother has sought medical help to explain the dangers of alcohol consumption after her 12-year-old daughter was invited to a 13-year-old’s champagne breakfast.

Dr Lorraine Baker, who is president of the Australian Medical Association Victoria wrote in the Herald Sun that the mother had brought her daughter to see her to discuss with her the risks of alcohol consumption.

“The parents of the birthday girl had done the “right thing” by including a permission slip for the guests’ parents to authorise the service of alcohol to the children, who all attended the same private school.

“For me, this is an illustration of how distorted our culture’s relationship with alcohol can be,” she wrote.

Dr Baker then said that since alcohol consumption is the norm among Australians, it is hard to identify when someone’s relationship with alcohol is ‘slipping toward the dangerous for both drinkers and the people around them.’  

“Even if we manage to protect our children from under-age drinking, they often grow up witnessing the “grown-ups” drinking on a regular basis more than the recommended two standard drinks in any one session,” she said.

In a recent study, Australian teens aged 12 to 16 who had alcohol supplied by their parents were three times as likely to be drinking full serves by age 16.

Meanwhile, a UK study in August revealed that half of the parents allow their kids to drink at home before the age of 14 and one in 10 parents let their children have alcohol at home once a month while some let them drink every day.

Also, about 11 per cent of around 1,000 parents surveyed by Churchill Home Insurance admitted letting their children drink at home from as young as five to seven years old, and over a third of them said they did so to stop their kids ‘rebelling’.

Around a quarter said they saw nothing wrong with their children drinking alcohol. A quarter also let teens drink when they had friends around and a fifth allowed drinking among teens under the age of 14 before a night out.

Parents were most likely to let teens under the age of 14 drink at special family occasions, with 57 per cent saying they would allow this. However, 42 per cent said they would give children booze to reward them if they had done well at school.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk