Wannabe adults: Drink – Drunk
In a hurry to become adults, children are losing their childhood to alcohol, concerned parents from different communities in the city say.
POLOKWANE – In a hurry to become adults, children are losing their childhood to alcohol, concerned parents from different communities in the city say.
Estrelita Harmse, a mother and teacher, says it is shocking to see how many children aged between eight and 10-years-old drink alcohol openly.
“It is very sad to see how these children drink themselves to a pulp. I teach most of them at a local primary school.
“Some are so drunk they can barely stand and others just don’t have any shame and proudly walk with their beer in the Street. I can’t help but ask myself where the parents of these children are,” Harmse says.
A father from Rainbow Park says the worst part of these children’s drinking habbit is the fact that some parents buy the alcohol for their children. “I know of parents who drink with their children. According to them, it is better for their children to do it at home than in the street where they cannot keep an eye on them.
“In other instances parents buy alcohol for their children and their friends, because they don’t want their children to think they are boring. Parents are not supposed to be ‘cool’, they are supposed to look after their children, even if that means you have to be boring by setting ground rules and restricting your child from drinking,” he says.
An 11-year-old girl says she enjoys drinking because it makes her feel good. “All my friends drink and we especially like Savannah. If we don’t have money for Savannah, we buy box wine which is cheaper,” the girl says.
A 14-year-old boy says he only drinks on weekends with his friends. “My friends an I keep our pocket money for the week and spend it on alcohol over the weekend. I ask my cousin to buy the drinks for us, because the tavern owners don’t want to sell alcohol to us,” the boy explains.
A mother from Westenburg says she is proud of a local tavern owner in John Smith Street. “No children are allowed in the tavern, not even to buy colddrinks. There is a bouncer at the entrance to monitor that no person under 18 enters the premises and the bar lady also refuses to sell to anyone under age if kids do sneak in,” the woman says.
Sonnet Seegers, senior social worker at the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca) says children become involved with alcohol because that is what they see and it is available to them.
“Parents must lead by example and not expose their children to alcohol. When a child starts early, the chances are great that the child will become dependent on the substance,” she says.
She adds that a child’s brain and body develops until they are in their early 20’s.
“Drinking impairs brain development and the ability to make good decisions. It affects the child’s ability to learn and their health in general. Alcohol can also make a child vulnerable to criminal behaviour like stealing, getting into fights and drugs.”
