Categories: general-nonsense
Tags: General Nonsense
Date: 06 October 2009 05:57:43
The streets are filling up around here again, the queues in the new Tesco are longer than just a week ago and last night I could hear a distant buzz of noise from the city centre as I made my way home from the station. Yesterday I was giving out cookies and flyers to post-grads; today and tomorrow I will take my turn in doing the same to undergrads.......welcome to Freshers week.
The Telegraph has this article related to the environment we send our freshers into and the pressure for them to conform to the stereotype of the alcohol fuelled student, who can burn the candle at both ends.
Whilst as Davidson makes clear in his article, and any fan of celebrity biographies will know, this is no new thing this is still worrying. I agree totally with the concerns Davidson is expressing in the article. Third Party is rapidly approaching uni age - we are going through the choosing a 6th form thing at the moment and I have to say I worry for her. However, I have to say I hope one of the most important principles I have taught her remains in her mind as she gets to the age where she begins to enter the night time economy....one person always needs to be sober enough to help get their friends home ok. I am a firm believer that in the same way as you have a designated driver if you are not having to drive, as students don't tend to have to, you should have a designated person to help v. drunk people get home safetly. I say this as the person who has had the experience of having to be helped home on the odd occassion in the past, (I really can't handle my drink).
Most importantly though, yet again, the article reminds us of our own responsiblilty as parents. Drinking in moderation has become an important issue for me over the last year or so. I know that examples have to be set and many of us, as parents, are not setting the right example. We think it is ok to occassionally get a bit tipsy, because it's someones leaving do, a birthday, night in/out with the girls, Christmas or whatever. What example does this set our children? It says that as long as it is a "special occassion" it is ok to go out and get totally ratted. What is a "special occassion" then? Freshers week is a right of passage and the "special occassion" for students, but it sets a patten that some find it difficult to escape from.
Some will call me a hypocrite here, having at Greenbelt or on other "special occassions" witnessed my inability to handle my wine. However, as I say I am having to think again and try to amend my behaviour. Tea total is not necessarily the way to go, but learning about moderation whatever the occassion must be.