With the festive season coming our way, people will be stocking up their wine cellars and fridges. The question is, do you drink in front of your children, and how much? Not only that, but if you wait until they're in bed, aren't you still 'on duty' as a parent?

Suggestions are that a parent is on duty 24/7, and should be fully equipped to respond to any crisis, ie, sober, or, alternatively, that the parent must organise another non-drinking individual to be available to look after the kids if he/she (that parent!) is drinking, even at home.

Perhaps some of you have some tips on how to have fun without risking the safety of our children. Do you think that parenting and drinking are mutually exclusive?

I also have a question. i know of married couple who have 3 children youngest 1year, and these parent are always drinking getting drunk fighting beating each other up, they don’t bath the children on occasions wash the clothes, leave them hunger(most of the family help care for these children)...and i can image that this can only end in disaster for the children will the also grow up being like this or will they feel rejected or feel like they have been dealt a bad card in life??? i feel so bad for these children, but i cant intervere because i am not family...

Drinking alcohol when you have children to look after is stupid.

And one drink is never enough for most people - the hypothetical 'one glass of wine' in the evening morphs into two or three after a hard day, and then what?

The road transport authorities are, with very good reason, considering reducing the permitted level of blood-alcohol when driving to xero. Yup - that's Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Not even one little low-alcohol beer before driving.

Read these articles:
What is alcohol?
What alcohol does to your body.

Now answer these little questions:
How do you take care of emergencies when you're drunk?
How do you react correctly to life-threatening situations when you're drunk?
How do you drive a child to hospital when you're drunk?
How do you drive a child ANYWHERE when you're drunk?
How do you protect your child from danger when you're drunk?
How do you teach your child life-lessons when you're drunk?
How do you set your child an example when you're drunk?

Here's another question: are people incapable of having a good time, of enjoying themselves, of laughing and making jokes without alcohol?

Perhaps if the only way you can enjoy yourself is to take drugs - and alcohol is actually a drug, and a very dangerous and addictive one at that - then there is something very wrong in your life.

Alcohol is known as an 'enabling' addiction - where consumption of alcohol reduces resistance to trying/using other, illegal drugs. Just ask Amy Winehouse's father how he feels about alcohol now... and ask yourself if the risk of alcoholism for yourself, or for your child (who is bound to follow your example) is worth it.

And no, there is never a time when you are completely 'off-duty' as a parent. Your child is ALWAYS your responsibility, no matter what. If you are big enough and ugly enough to become a parent, then you should be big enough and ugly enough to live your life without a crutch, to face reality stone-cold sober, as it were.

Failing all else, read this article and reflect upon the fact that around 10% of all alcohol drinkers become alcoholics:Wikipedia article on Alcoholism