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Drug and alcohol addiction and abuse. Recognition. Prevention. Treatment

20/20 Parenting. Recognizing and mitigating early vulnerabilities and risk factors.

Drugs & Alcohol - Alcohol

Gary Direnfeld, Dad of 1, MSW, RSW

Gary Direnfeld is a social worker with more than 25 years of experience  working with parents, teens and young children. With a  private  practice located in Dundas, Ontario, he provides counseling, mediation  and assessment services on most matters of family life from the comfort  of his home office. People regularly travel from surrounding regions for his special brand of counseling.

Visit at: www.yoursocialworker.com


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Drinking and Parenting

Drinking is generally categorized into three levels: light, moderate and heavy.  For a man, light drinking is considered about six standard drinks per week; moderate drinking is about 12 to 14 standard drinks per week and heavy as 22 to 24 standard drinks per week. Binge drinking is considered five or more standard drinks per occasion, at least once per month. Levels for women are about 2/3 those of men.

With regard to a standard drink, this means either 12 ounces of beer, four ounces of wine or one ounce of liquor. It is a myth that beer or wine is less harmful than hard liquor as what matters is the amount of alcohol consumed, not the form it comes in. It also doesn’t matter whether one drinks alone or socially.

It is the number of standardized drinks that matters when determining the risk of alcohol consumption on parenting. Light drinking is only a statement of quantity, not effect on parenting. Even light quantities of alcohol consumption can affect parenting. So as drinking increases, so too does the risk of poor parenting and poor outcomes for kids.

Truth is, a good many parents are drinking alcohol in quantities that contribute to poor parenting. Persons who are regular light drinkers may find their one or two drinks a day, or several on the weekend interferes with their time with the kids. It isn’t being intoxicated that is necessarily the issue, but time drinking is time away from the children.

Drinking can occur at a time when children may most require adult supervision such as after school or during weekend free time. Taken further, in addition to time away from the kids, more drinking can limit a parent’s emotional availability to their children. Hence, time away or emotional unavailability takes on the appearance of neglect.

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