<p>One other comment – if the party or barbecue or potluck dinner has a pool, and my kids are young, I am not drinking at all. Too many ways to get distracted, lose track of your child, and splash! They’re sinking to the bottom.</p>
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<p>This is incorrect. Could possibly be the case, but not at all for everyone.</p>
<p>Our block used to do this – informally. Around 5-6 pm the stay-at-home parents would meet up with the parents just getting home from work… we’d share a glass of wine out on our respective ‘stoops’ (front porches actually,) chat, watch the kids play before we needed to herd them inside for dinner. It was fun, a neighborhood bonding experience, a way to all keep in touch. Once the kids got older the tradition disappeared, replaced by a twice-a-year block party. But it’s not the same.</p>
<p>My neighborhood did this back in the day, too-- though it was mostly the dads here! The dads got together on somebody’s patio and had a beer or two while the kids played in the yard-- usually around dinner time or after, sometimes moms came but it was mostly the neighborhood men. I think it was really good for the neighborhood. Now that the kids have grown up they’ve stopped doing it, and now nobody speaks to anybody else anymore. I don’t see the harm in it-- not everybody is impaired just from one drink, and not all playdates are at 10am.</p>
<p>I also certainly don’t see how going to a pro ball game and having a few beers can be equated with going out to dinner and having a glass of wine-- one involves a meal, the other doesn’t. Where is your argument there?</p>
<p>I didn’t say have a few beers. I meant a beer, like a glass of wine at dinner. And you’re a better person than I if you go to a ball game and don’t have a hot dog (or nachos). In my mind, they’re both social events.</p>
<p>The mommy party I went to was closer to a kegger. lol</p>
<p>My town has a woman’s night out group. We meet evenings and leave the kids home with our spouses.</p>
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<p>Great minds. I was thinking that maybe I should have indulged in a glass of wine at dinner every night. The squabbling might have been less annoying.</p>
<p>ABC is waaaayyyy behind the curve on this one. Meredith Viera and others were debating this back in 2007.
[cocktail</a> playdate - Strollerderby](<a href=“Disney.com | The official home for all things Disney”>Disney.com | The official home for all things Disney)</p>
<p>I like my “book club”. It’s my mommy play date with grown up beverages and no kids allowed! I wouldn’t be comfortable drinking around a lot of children, especially baby and toddlers.</p>
<p>I just went to a an end of year pool party for our swim team. The older kids and teenagers were disgusted with the parents that were drinking. A couple of the parents got smashed and the teenagers started to say things to them about their behavior. </p>
<p>I never think it is a good idea to drink around kids. Small children require so much attention that drinking can be dangerous. You relax and take your eyes off of them for one minute and bad things tend to happen.</p>
<p>My youngest is six year old and my girlfriends and I will do this, and have since the kids were babies. We don’t overindulge, but we’ll definitely get the kids playing, open a bottle of wine, and order a pizza. Or sometimes if it’s earlier in the afternoon we’ll make margaritas and just relax in the back yard while the kids run around. No bad things have happened yet. Online, as in real life, alcohol is a big deal for some people. But it is not a big deal for me, or for most of my friends, and I think we’re all capable of drinking without getting drunk.</p>
<p>we did this…It was called Bunko night…no kids there though</p>
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<p>Actually, I would wonder why a dad taking his kids to Little League or soccer practice / game would “have” to have a few beers.</p>
<p>In my extended family, there was a christening and one side of the family was quite upset that there wouldn’t be beer at the reception at the parents’ house afterwards. @@ It’s an event for a child – you don’t NEED beer. Drink some iced tea or lemonade or soft drinks and move on, already. I have very little patience for people who feel a “need” to have alcohol at events or else the events aren’t fun.</p>
<p>This thread brings bad memories to mind. </p>
<p>I was subjected to innumerable after-school “playdates” (usually with one other family at a time) at which elementary-school-aged children were supposed to play while the moms drank to excess. We kids were not supervised at all. I remember one night in particular that I still believe my mother and I were lucky to get home alive.</p>
<p>I realize that such playdates don’t have to be as they were for me. Perhaps there is someone reading my words, though, who can see herself and will make some changes.</p>
<p>I don’t see a problem with this so long as no driving is involved and no one drinks to excess. It actually brings back fond memories of some of my neighborhood get-together potluck happy hours on Fridays once a month. The kids always had a blast, as did the moms and the occasional dad. Frosty margaritas really did hit the spot, they don’t have to be strong to be delicious!</p>
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<p>Exactly. Watch Mad Men for a while and you’ll see…this was the norm back in the 50’s and early 60’s.</p>
<p>Seriously…I think this is preferable to what is going on now.</p>
<p>Okay, so lots of young mommies don’t drink. Some of those mommies are doped up on Xanac or Zoloft or Valium or tranquilizers. </p>
<p>Now, I am NOT saying that there aren’t perfectly valid reasons for some mommies to use anti-depressants or pain killers. However, for a heck of a lot of young mommies today, these play the same role as cocktails in the 50s and 60s. </p>
<p>I’m not sure this is an improvement.</p>
<p>One is not “doped up” on Zoloft or similar anti depressants. That’s an unfair characterization and perpetuates the stigma that mental health issues aren’t real. You wouldn’t say a diabetic was “doped up” on insulin; why apply that to a depressed person?</p>