The wine bottle was sitting innocently on the counter. I ignored it. The boys did not.

“What is that?,” the 6-year-old asked. “Wine,” I muttered and moved on to something else. The boys did not.

“But what’s it for?,” he pressed.

I took a deep breath and thought, Ok, so this is happening. “It’s for adults. We drink it with fancy dinners.”

“Oh, yeah, like when you eat meat.” I think he meant STEAK, but potato, patato. Good enough: yes, with fancy meat dinners.

I kept at it. “Boys and girls can’t have any because your brains are still growing. And it can hurt your brain. And it can make you very sick if you drink it.”

The 4yo suddenly chirped: “Yes! Like when Everett’s sister drank some!”

Um, where is this going? Because, from what I’ve gathered, Everett’s sister is 7.

In a sing-song voice, like the cat who’d caught the canary, he continued, “Her head hurt and her tummy got sick.”

There you have it, folks. If you’ve ever wondered what kinds of things your 4yo is learning at daycare, it’s apparently this: a hangover is a bitch.

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Your kids are ready

Given this fun, little parenting escapade, I recently listened to a podcast on how to talk to your kids about drinking. In it, Annie Grace, author of the phenomenal book, This Naked Mind, about the impact of alcohol on our brains, offers TONS OF GREAT TIPS.

But then she says her kids, ages 4 and 7, are probably too young for her to talk with about any of this. She’s thinking she’ll wait til they’re 9 or 10 to do it.

Uh, hold on there, Annie Grace, clearly your kids are NOT too young for this conversation.

Alcohol use and children

Here are some facts about children and alcohol (and drugs – because, um, alcohol is literally a drug). These are from another great book, Clean by David Sheff:

Every day, an average of 8,120 people age twelve and over try drugs for the first time, and 12,800 try alcohol – more than 20,000 people.

Nearly a quarter of those over twelve years old – sixty million people – binge drink.

Most drug use begins when people are young – from twelve to eighteen years old. The median age of initial drug use is fourteen, and 90 percent of those who become addicted begin using before the age of eighteen.

Also, the younger kids are when they start using, the more likely it is that they’ll become addicted.

Start the conversation now

So, go ahead, start the conversation early. Talk to your impressionable 4yo about drinking.

Because Sheff goes on to share these stats from a study by the Center on Addiction:

‘The greater perceived parental disapproval of substance use, the less likely teens are to use.’

…Only around 4 percent of kids who perceived ‘strong parental disapproval’ smoked pot, compared to about 33 percent of those who perceived that their parents ‘would not strongly disapprove.’

The research supports our intuition and our hope: parents’ values influence their kids.

The time is now to start the discussion. To communicate your values. No matter how old your kid is.

Because you never know what messages he’s already hearing at the innocent age of four. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather mine was gossiping with his friends about musical chairs or slugs or dog poop.

Have you had “the talk” yet? What tips can you share? Comment below or on Facebook at MothersRest.

Photo credit: DivvyPixel from Pixabay