Friday, August 12, 2005

More Evidence That American Parents are Blind Leaders of the Blind

The American Medical Association is reporting that "almost one-third of the teens said it was easy to get alcohol from their parents with their parents' knowledge....Many of the adults displayed a nonchalant attitude about teen drinking. About one-fourth of the parents polled in the study said they have allowed their teens to drink alcohol in the last six months. 'The rationalization among parents is teens are going to do it anyway, let them do it under my supervision,' says Pat Hines, executive director of Safe Moves, a Los Angeles nonprofit program on traffic safety education that recently developed a program for teens on drinking and driving. 'Parents think they can control it. I think that's a fallacy. [Drinking] becomes almost acceptable when a parent establishes those parameters.'"