Teaching Kids to Beer Bong?

Both of my daughters were recently sick and generally feeling terrible. Of course when times like these present themselves, you ultimately reach out for some medicine to help them get through it. My go-to elixir is NyQuil. I swear I don’t know why they continue to tell people they are looking for the cure to the common cold when it already exists in that sweet potion that helps sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching…you know the rest. All of those that have taken NyQuil know that it can be a horrendous experience. It basically tastes like liquid death. Oh sure, they give you the cherry option that at least makes it somewhat bearable. Does anyone still get the green stuff? Good God.

So, back to the story at hand. I’ve convinced my daughter to take Nyquil before bed to help her with her sickness. I’m standing by her bed with the cup of red fire water in my hand. I hand it over and tell her to take it straight down, quickly. She fights it a little and asks if it tastes nasty. To which I promptly reply “YES! But, it will help.” She reaches out takes the cup and asks if she really should take that much. After some coaxing and explaining that is how much she should take, she starts to move it to her mouth. At which point I start to chant “Go! Go! Go!” She starts to drink it. Her face wrinkles up and I ramp up my cheering a few decibels with my hands clenched into fists pumping up and down with each “Go!” As she finishes and starts to do the NyQuil wiggle from the taste of wretchedness, I find myself quietly wondering something I always wonder after going through this process with medicine. Am I preparing my daughter to be a drinking beast in college?

Think about it. I basically applied peer pressure to get her to drink something that could probably be used as a de-icer. I then cheered her on and chanted as she started to drink it until it was all gone. This seems way too familiar with drinking games in college and the obligatory crowd chanting for you to down your shot, beer bong, or whatever. Are these rational concerns for a parent? Should I be worried that I’m teaching my daughter how to take a drink to the head with the best of them? Maybe it’s just a paranoid father thinking of crazy things in my general approach to protecting my daughters. Oh, one other similarity to college and drinking…she was KNOCKED OUT for the night.