Friday, September 21, 2007

Wining and Whining

At least one parent thinks so. Apparently a local non-profit is raising money for the Leominster schools by hosting a wine tasting, and they are letting parents know by sending fliers home with students. Cue the outrage:

"The schools are basically saying, 'Hey, there's a wine tasting, give this to mommy and daddy so we can get drunk with them,'" Tarbell said Thursday afternoon.

Tarbell said the flier sends kids the message that drinking is acceptable.

"It's not appropriate, it's telling kids it's OK," she said. "With all the information telling you about drugs, alcohol, saying 'watch out for your prescription drugs,' this is the wrong message. What if they're not getting good guidance at home? Shouldn't they at least be getting good guidance at school, always?"

I was going to chime in, but Jody at The Big Dump Truck blog has done a better job than I could:
You know, Ms. Tarbell, if you interpret a wine tasting as an invitation to get drunk, that would be YOUR PROBLEM and maybe you should look into getting some professional help. Wine Tasting does not equal kegger. Wine Tasting is not a tailgate party. Wine tasting is not taking a bottle of Boone's Farm behind the neighbor's barn when you were 12....

Your poor kids are going to have a really warped sense of alcohol's place in our lives, and I would fear that they are going to see it as the apple tree in the garden of Eden. "Oooh, it's forbidden and it makes mom crazy! It must be AWESOME!"

And if you don't like my response, too bad. Maybe you shouldn't have taken your misbegotten crusade to the newspaper. I got the flier, and there is NOTHING ABOUT IT that implies a)it's for kids and b) that it's anything but a very classy, exclusive opportunity for adults to gather and try small samples of wine and food. Not one thing about the flier would have been appealing to an 11 year old. My 9 year old didn't even look at it. YOU, my dear, are the one making your children think this is a BFD.
Not to mention, why in the world would the Sentinel even think there was a story here?

Tags:
blog comments powered by Disqus

Post a Comment



 

No Drumlins Copyright © 2009 Premium Blogger Dashboard Designed by SAER