Letting your kids drink under your roof

School psychologist & author Stephen Gray Wallace, MS Ed dispels myths that parents who let their children drink in the house are less likely to be drinking outside of the house. Watch this video for more on this controversial topic.
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Letting your kids drink under your roof

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Many parents believe that allowing their children to drink at home will make it less likely that they’ll be off drinking with their friends. In fact, in my research shows the exact opposite. The kids who are allowed to drink at home, even on just special occasions, are overwhelmingly more likely to be off drinking with their friends than are kids who are not allowed to drink at home. Parents also may think that they’re keeping their kids safe if they have what they call a car-key basket. I wrote a column called The Myth of the Car-Key Basket. Because what kids says is they’re going to put their keys in the basket, the parents go upstairs and watch TV, and they drink, they take their keys and they drive home. It’s not keeping kids safe. And by the way, automobiles are not the only way that kids are dying as a result of the alcohol use. They’re falling down the stairs, they aspirate on their own vomit, and they’re falling off of roofs. So there’s lot of ways that alcohol can be destructive in the life of a young person. Allowing young people to drink to drink at home, does them no favors. Parents also often site European countries, saying that kids that come from European countries with lower drinking ages don’t have these problems. Well that’s not true. In fact, every European country, with the exception of Turkey, with a lower drinking age than the United States has higher youth intoxication rate than does the United States.
TEEN, Substance Use, Alcohol Use

School psychologist & author Stephen Gray Wallace, MS Ed dispels myths that parents who let their children drink in the house are less likely to be drinking outside of the house. Watch this video for more on this controversial topic.

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Stephen Gray Wallace, MS Ed

School Psychologist & Author

Stephen Gray Wallace, M.S. Ed., is president and director of the Center for Adolescent Research and Education (CARE), a national collaborative of institutions and organizations committed to increasing favorable youth outcomes and reducing risk. He is a consultant to summer camps on staff training and teen leadership programming and has broad experience as a school psychologist and adolescent/family counselor. Stephen is a member of the professional development faculty at the American Academy of Family Physicians and American Camp Association and a parenting expert at kidsinthehouse.com, NBC News Learn and WebMD. He is also an expert partner at RANE (Risk Assistance Network & Exchange) and was national chairman and chief executive officer at SADD for more than 15 years. Additional information about Stephen’s work can be found at StephenGrayWallace.com.

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