An 8-year-old’s view of alcohol
On Friday my boy came to me in floods of tears and thoroughly distressed. He’d been watching the One show on BBC1, something he finds interesting and informative, and they’d included a report on alcohol-related disease, such as liver failure. He could not believe that people can die from drinking alcohol – and if that was the case, why on earth they do it to themselves. Seen from his point of view, I could not find a sensible argument, to be honest. We had a chat. He wants to take whoever is responsible to court to have alcohol banned. I explained about moderation – his Dad’s family enjoy a glass of wine, while I rarely drink and don’t miss it (I now react badly to my previous tipple of a glass of red wine since my pregnancies) – but I could see him struggling with the concept (definitely keeping this blog to show him in 10 years!).
So – being someone that will look to find a way to actually do something about a situation, I’ve suggested that we see how we might make a difference. Now obviously my first tool is going to be the Internet – I can throw a blog together while eating breakfast (as can anyone!) – so we’re going to do just that – create a blog for his voice. I will then do my stuff to be sure it’s heard. And we’ll then take the project into his school, then through Maidstone, Kent, the UK, and beyond! Of course we can – and if this touches just one person, makes someone think that a boy cares about whether they live or die, then it will be wonderful.
Already this idea has brought other projects to my attention – the Every 15 minutes project in America – shockingly brutal but how can that fail to make a difference (thanks Nigel for that link), and the Change It idea (thanks Sally). We’ll bring those together and do our bit to enable children’s opinons to be heard.
So – watch this space…
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 11:17 am and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.