Cocktail
One quarter of parents let their children drink alcohol while they are away on holiday with a ‘what happens on holiday stays on holiday’ mentality. As soon as their children have come back home, old rules still apply. It would seem that the local drinking ages abroad cause the most confusion.
We have all done it when we yearn to be of legal drinking age; gone to the local bar with an older crowd in order to get served or had a house party and had a few too many before our 18th Birthday has hit. But where do you draw the line? What is the lowest age you would let your children drink? Would it only be during a meal time, or would you let them have a drinking session in your company while abroad?
Sunshine.co.uk found that 26% of parents had let their child have alcohol under age while they were abroad, with 55% aged 15-17, 23% between ages 12-14 and 19% were 9-11 with a shocking amount that let their child drink if they were between 6 and 8 years old (3%).
44% of parents admitted that when they had let their child drink they had consumed enough to become drunk, however 68% said that they would not let their child drink back at home.
Nearly half of parents condoned this because they thought it was legal abroad (47%), 21% said that it was easier to get away with underage drinking abroad. 15% wanted them to be able to have fun on holiday and in the absence of anything else, they resorted to giving them alcohol.
9% professed that it was easier to keep an eye on them while they were on holiday if they were drinking. I am at a loss to know the reasoning behind this one as when you are drunk you are prone to wandering off and losing your bearings, so surely alcohol does the exact opposite? The only rational explanation I can come up with is that children are bribed to stay near their parents if they are buying them drinks.
Chris Clarkson, Managing Director of sunshine.co.uk, said the following about the poll:
“Parents that think the legal drinking age differs abroad should always check their facts, because in most places it’s still 18 or 21. A glass of wine with a meal for a teenager is sometimes acceptable, but letting your underage child get drunk, especially in a strange environment, is very irresponsible, not to mention dangerous!
“To see that some parents were letting their youngsters drink alcohol abroad on holiday from the age of 6 was, quite frankly, appalling.”