This weekend we went to friends house for a party. We were very excited for a fun night out with friends; a lot of people we know would be there, as well as some friends of theirs we didn’t know.  We were running late which I hate, but by the time we got there the party was in full swing.  We walked into lots of drinking, (let me pause the story to say I have no problem with drinking, I am fine to be with adults who drink) ok, back to the story, the friends house we were at knew that we don’t drink because of personal preference as well as my husbands position as a pastor.  It should be no big deal whether you drink or not; well the friend made a huge deal of it, announcing to everyone at the party the coke products are for the Prouty’s only!

He went on and on and on for quite a while and it threw me right back to high school -suddenly I feel weird for not drinking? My husband and I are looking at each other like, “how do we get out of here?” Keep in mind my kids (all four of our kids a 10 yr old 11 and two 14 yr olds) are watching this. Finally the friends said something like, “it is so much fun to give you guys a hard time about not dinking!” and my husband said in a very direct tone, “fun for who?” Well, he got the message and the harassing stopped. We had a nice evening after that and met some really nice people.

At the end of the evening, when it was time to leave I started to wonder,  how were all these people getting home? They had had a lot to drink; not just a drink with dinner, but beer followed by martinis, then margaritas then some wine and then more beer. Keep in mind they all had kids with them ranging in age from 4 to 16. As we drove home I start to think how do you tell your teens never never drink and drive, and then go to a party, have them watch you drink all that, and then get in the car and drive home? I don’t get it!  What I do know is that our kids learn more from watching us than they do by what we tell them.

Drinking is a hard thing, I am not at all saying that we have never drank, or that we wont have another drink in our lives,  I just think the older our kids get we have decided that it is just better not to now. I want my kids to know you can be with friends and have a blast and not drink. I want them to know it is not okay to drink and then get in car and drive, no matter how old you are. I want to make sure that I don’t tell them one thing, and do another. I guess the best thing about the evening was that our teens got see us stand up to criticism for not drinking, and they got to see we had just as much fun as the next person there.

Here is to doing only what you want to do and standing up to peer pressure no matter what your age!