We will soon be posting a badge for mothers to use online in asserting the right of women to make sound, personal parenting decisions regarding the moderate and responsible consumption of alcohol. We have created this badge in response to a sensational and widely-viewed feature on MSNBC in which parents and bloggers were criticized for consuming a single glass of wine during get-togethers in the presence of their young children.
Few people have not been touched in some way through family and friends by alcoholism, and parents everywhere know the pressure media and other parents can exert on conformity to skewed standards of "proper" parenting behavior. We believe that the perspective represented by this piece of shock journalism reflect dangerous attitudes both to the responsibilities of motherhood and to the safe consumption of alcohol. You can sign on to your support of the above by displaying the badge on your blog and website and linking to the Statement of Belief we will post to explain the badge's meaning.
Please feel free to comment on our take on this issue by commenting on this post - we welcome all open discussion of the topic, and discussions are going on elsewhere in many great blogs which would also welcome your comments. Comments will be disabled in our Statement of Belief simply because we wish it to reflect a unified position shared by anyone who chooses to use the badge.
Update: You can view the badge and read the statement of belief here. If you agree with its message, we encourage you to make use of the badge and text as you see fit.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Standing Up For Mothers' Rights
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7 comments:
EXCELLENT IDEA!!!
Love it.
Awesome! Thanks for enabling so I could comment...I'll post about this next week.
I agree with your statement. The MSNBC feature was nothing but superficial and inflammatory.
Have you seen the NY Times article on this subject?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/fashion/09drink.html?ex=1320728400&en=1c85cc99a77eff3c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
I like the quote, "Mom's fruit juice is aged."
Wonderful, thanks for pointing me to it. The article led me to an interview with Dwight B. Heath, who is a professor of anthropology and has studied the uses of alcohol across cultures for most of his career. An excerpt:
Dr. Heath: We have to be very careful in the messages that we send. It isn't helpful to stigmatize a product that, when used in moderation, is associated with better health and greater longevity than is either abstaining or drinking heavily. This is especially the case when to do so tends to increase those problems that do exist.
Dr. Hanson: But isn't it necessary to warn young people about the dangers of abusing alcohol?
Dr. Heath: Yes. It's essential that we teach everyone the dangers of abusing alcohol, but in doing so we must be careful to distinguish between drinking in moderation and drinking abusively. Societies that have few alcohol problems tend to view drinking in moderation as entirely acceptable behavior, while they view abusive drinking as totally unacceptable behavior for anyone under any circumstances at any time.
Dr. Hanson: What else can we learn from other societies?
Dr. Heath: In societies that successfully control alcohol abuse, young people usually learn how to drink at home from their parents. In learning how to drink, they are also learning how not to drink. This helps promote moderation and reduces abuse. Importantly, this learning occurs in a caring, safe, supportive environment - not in a raucous fraternity house or military barrack. Again, perhaps ironically, groups that promote abstinence as the only option tend to experience more problems among those who do drink.
You can read more of the interview here.
Rock on!!!
Btw, you've been Babbled... Z REcommends will be references in a Stroller Derby post (by me) on Monday at 11am EST.
I love this stand!
I agree!
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