Parenting Articles:

Introduction
Definition
Skills
Not By Choice
Church
Dating
Education
Alcohol
Aids
Sex
Blending

Single Parenting and Alcohol

Too many of our teens have lost their lives to drinking and driving. Too many parents have experienced the pain and horror of losing their young son or daughter too soon. It is a horrible thing to be awakened by a telephone call at 1:30 am in the morning with news that your young son or daughter was killed in a car accident. It is horrifying to see a beautiful soul lying lifeless and mutilated because a driver was drinking, driving and going too fast. This craziness must stop and stop now. We should not be killing each other.

The legal age for drinking alcohol in the Turks and Caicos Islands is 21. There should be no exceptions. Parents themselves should start by being good examples in the home. It is impossible to convince your child that alcohol is not an option when you bargain with them by allowing them to drink as long as they promise not to drive. Parents, you must be parents. Talk to your children. Let them know that actions have consequences at any age. Set rules, restrictions or curfews and make it clear that alcohol is not an option until he or she has reached the age of 21.

Drinking at any age carries a responsibility. I have heard that if you switch between beer, wine and liquor it will make you more drunk than sticking to one type of alcohol. The truth is what ever your blood alcohol content is that determines how drunk you are. Not the flavors you selected. Alcohol is alcohol. You may think that once you have been drinking, having a cup of coffee or a cold shower will sober you up. Nothing will sober you up except time. You may be clean and awake but you are still drunk. You are still not capable of getting behind the wheel of a car. The only solution to being sober and staying sober is not to drink at all.

People are becoming too frightened to drive in the evening (especially on a Friday night) because they might be run off the road by a driver going too fast or hit by a drunk driver. We should not be frightened to go outside our homes in the evening. We should not be hostages in our own homes because of drunk drivers.

The laws for drinking and driving should be enforced. Retailers should co-operate with the law and insist on seeing the identification of a person whom they suspect to be underage before selling any alcoholic beverages to them. The legal age for serving alcohol should be displayed in restaurants, bars and all public places where alcohol is served. Anyone seen serving alcohol to an underage person should be reported to the police. Serving alcohol to teenagers is irresponsible, illegal, dangerous and can be fatal.

Parents: together we can stop the practice of drunk driving by banding together and forming a chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) or Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) right here in the community of Providenciales. No other parent should have the horrible experience of losing her young daughter or his young son to drunk driving.