Oct 10
6
UK parents who care little about children’s character
Victoria Times Colonist – October 6, 2010
U.K. parents loosen up over kids’ drinking, sexuality
Reuters
British parents are becoming more relaxed in their attitudes to drinking, drugs and sexuality, according to a poll on yesterday.
Parents said that on average they would be happy for their child to start having the occasional alcoholic drink at home from the age of 13. One parent in 10 was fine with their children drinking regularly from the age of 16 – two years below the legal age limit for buying alcohol in Britain. The findings indicate that government health warnings over under-age drinking are falling on deaf ears. Last year the government recommended that parents should not let their children drink any alcohol at all until they are 15.
Attitudes to illegal drugs were also relaxed, according to the poll, with 32 per cent of parents saying they did not mind their child smoking cannabis as a one-off and eight per cent comfortable with them smoking the drug regularly. A large number of parents – 30 per cent – were open to the idea that drug-taking by kids was simply a part of growing up.
Read the complete article here.