Surgeon General's Warning:  Cool Parents Listen Up!

Are you a cool parent?

If so, listen up.  UNDERAGE DRINKING IS AN EPIDEMIC!  Does anyone hear these alarm bells going off?  Cool parents?  Are you hearing him?

Are we, as a community, going to act now or wait long enough to simply rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic?  Folks, we've met the enemy and he looks like us.

The Surgeon General has just issued a National Call to Action on Underage Drinking. Meanwhile our society turns its attentions to Anna Nichole, Britney, the Oscars and the next issue of People magazine or American Idol. What's wrong with this picture? 

The 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimates 11 million regular underage drinkers in the U.S., of which a stunning 7.2 million are considered "Binge" drinkers!  Another 2 million are considered "heavy" drinkers.

We as a society have promulgated the myth that drinking is a rite of passage to adulthood.  And, it's so many of the parents - the "Cool Parents" who have bought into this adolescent line of thought.

However, consistently, massive amounts of research show that young people who start drinking before age 15 are 5 times more likely to have alcohol-related problems.  Already a well-known fact is that 1 out of 10 Americans are afflicted with serious issues regarding alcohol.  Parents - you can do this math - it's really old math.

Among the many harmful effects to young people who start drinking early and actively within our permissive culture are:

• Vocabulary, general information, memory and retrieval are lessened
• Verbal and nonverbal recall decreases by 10%
• Significant neuropsychological deficits arise
• Decreased school performance reflected in grades and standardized test scores
• Increased occurrance of social problems, depression, suicidal thoughts and violence
• Disruption of sleep resulting in impaired learning, and memory
• Disruption of release of hormones necessary for physical, mental and emotional growth and maturation

Offhand, I say that's more than enough evidence.

So, what are you as parents willing to do?

When are you as parents going to speak up?

When are you as parents going to speak out? When will you stop hiding behind the faulty logic that "we did it as kids, how can I tell my kid not to drink now?"  Well, I seem to remember that we also grew up not using seat belts and riding around in cars with infants in our laps.  Fortunately, through technology and improved communication we have learned that there are some things we don't do now because we know better.

When are you going to say "That's it!  Enough is enough and too much is too much! I will not condone my child's dangerous choices, I will not encourage their risk-taking behaviors by looking the other way, or excusing them because they're just being kids."

When are you going to act? Soon - I hope.  We're the generation that makes our kids wear bicycle helmets and spent a fortune "baby-proofing" our electrical outlets - because now we know better.  Yet, for fear of confrontation or alienation, we throw all that precaution out the window when it comes to setting boundaries for drinking alcohol underage.

Why are we afraid to say "no"?  You did it when your toddler touched a hot stove.  Why not now when your teenager is drinking alcohol? The risks associated with alcohol are far greater than a burned hand.

Are parents afraid to say "no" because the kids won't like them?  Won't think they're cool parents?  Or because their own contemporaries will think they're no fun and too strict or from another planet?  Who cares?  When your child is in the hospital being sewn back together or being arrested and charged with vehicular homicide, what will it matter who likes you or how popular you are? Who cares if you're a cool parent then?

Will it take a tragedy in our community before we become the parents who care enough and are willing to risk alienation to keep our children safe?

Who wants to be the "Cool Parent" at a funeral?

(These photographs come from an actual case in our office.  We represented 3 young mothers whose car was hit while driving across the Old Grace Bridge by a drunk 20-year old going the wrong way back home to Mount Pleasant.   He had been served alcohol all evening at a bar on East Bay Street with his fake ID before he hit our clients and then careened off the Grace Bridge to Drum Island below. Miraculously, he survived the crash and fall.)