Don’t guilt trip parents about their moderate drinking | Anne Perkins

The Institute for Alcohol Studies’ warnings are disproportionate and risk undermining broader health advice. Children are made of sterner stuff

One of the best books my daughters and I read together was The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson. It is a grim, hopeful tale that alerts children to the power of love and kinship, and the way these survive in even the most dysfunctional of families. It encourages compassion and a tolerance of other lives. It’s obviously not a manual for living, but it is a celebration of the extraordinary resilience of children.

It came to mind because yet another guilt-tripping statistic has just been published. More than half of all parents, a study from the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) reveals, admit their children have seen them tipsy. It’s upsetting the children. And the parents too, many of whom confess they feel guilty or ashamed.

Related: More than a quarter of young adults in the UK do not drink alcohol – in data

Related: Drinking: how sensible of young people to lose their bottle

Continue reading... October 18, 2017 at 09:54PM