Mistake parents can't afford to make
Parents spend years and years teaching their children right from wrong, stressing the need to make responsible decisions and ethical choices.
Then they succeed in making a mockery of that message in the few minutes it takes them to agree to host a drinking party for their teen children and their friends. They abdicate parental responsibility in wanting to be the "cool" parents. Or they reason that teens are going to drink anyway, so best to let them do so in the family home where they can be safely supervised. They find out soon enough that they were terribly wrong to believe they could keep such parties safe and under control.
In some cases, dead wrong.
Despite all efforts to "collect the car keys," teens have left these parties only to be killed or injured in alcohol-related crashes.
Alcohol use is a major factor not only in teen car crashes but also in sexual assault and date rape.
We bring this up now as a cautionary message. This is the time of year, with proms and high school graduation parties, when there tends to be a spike in teen drinking -- at times at parties hosted by parents.
And parents who are incapable of exercising the mature thinking that would stop them from having these parties should know that the law is ready to react firmly and swiftly to this lapse in judgment.
Suburban legislators, reacting to the awful outcomes of teen drinking parties, have in recent years succeeded in getting bills approved that toughen penalties against parents who aid and abet teen drinking.
Judges have also not been shy about jailing parents found guilty of hosting drinking parties. We saw that happen twice last year. A Deerfield couple was convicted of allowing an underage drinking party in their house that led to the death of two teens in a car crash. One of the parents sentenced was told to spend 14 days in jail. And a Hanover Park mother and son were sentenced to spend four weekends in the DuPage County jail for hosting an underage drinking party that led to a teen's accidental drowning.
It's not just parents who furnish teens with alcohol. Last week, Sugar Grove police made their first arrest in a new crackdown on teen drinking that targets adults who agree to buy liquor for minors in establishments that sell alcoholic beverages.
When teens are caught drinking, they're told, "You should know better than that."
The same thing should not have to be told to adults who are caught furnishing kids with liquor. They don't have the excuse of youthful immaturity, or peer pressure, or the urge to be rebellious in making this mistake.
They should know better.
Parents are supposed to raise children responsibly -- not raise the risks that might keep their children from living beyond their teenage years.