A CHILDREN’S helpline has been bombarded with calls from youngsters
claiming their parents are excluding them from impromptu afternoon
cocktail
sessions.
Childline said it was being contacted by over 100 children a day who said they were being left to mix their own drinks or even make do with a bottle of continental lager until their parents came home from the pub with a carry out.
Kyle, a six year-old from Doncaster, told the charity: “It’s three o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon and I’m sitting here drinking fucking sherry while they’re necking peach flavoured vodka and passing round a big bowl of pills.
“My mummy says I’m too young for an afternoon vodka party and that I should drink my sherry in a one-er and then go and play with the gas barbecue until it’s time for gin and tonics.”
He added: “Make them give me vodka or I’ll set fire to Esther Rantzen.”
Meanwhile some children have complained that their parents can no longer drink as much as they used to.
Four year-old Gemma Logan wrote to Childline saying: “My Dad can’t handle his booze any more. Last week we split a bottle of Glenmorangie and were having a really interesting discussion about politics until he started getting all maudlin and tearful.
“If he keeps killing my buzz, can I go and live with a new family?”
Childcare expert, Dr Helen Archer, said: “A lot of parents ask me ‘when is the best time to start giving my children alcohol or drugs?’. And of course the answer is almost always never.
“Unless of course you think they can handle it, in which case start them off with half a Chinese spangle or mix a large glass of good quality Calvados into their squeezy cheese.”
