Hell yes I love to toke up or slam a drink after a long day of playing, reading, drawing, doing algebra and the rest. Why would anyone find this distasteful?? do you think we love to nag and oversee homework? do we derive joy always from trying to shape the young"uns? It is hard work and sometimes a little assistance can help one relax and surely go back to being a good parent.

why o why do childless men, seemingly so ignorant of women, persist in their insistance of how irrelevant these news items are? If you feel that it doens't apply to you, move the fuck on bridget!

Youve got 12 more years of "OMG I have to buy what for you for school?!" drama to go through before its done. Plus the whole teenager and hormone thing. How are you going to deal with all of that?? Mommy drinks because shes weak.

In Wisconsin, it is legal for minors to drink alcohol in bars or restaurants if the alcohol has been purchased by the parent or guardian and the p/g is present during consumption. It's one of the most fantastical laws that has ever been created.

No one's talking about "escape." It's called stress relief. Way to go. And no parent that I know that smokes pot gets angry when their kids do. I've smoked pot readily with some of my friends' parents. So way to go again.

My parents have been social drinkers and occasional pot smokers since I can remember. Both are school teachers and are great parents. I don't drink much, but I smoke weed on a weekly basis. It seems to balance me out. I've been told by neighbors, teachers and my kids doctors that my husband and I are great parents, and that my kids are wonderful. I smoke weed probably more than I should, but it doesn't affect my parenting.

I fully agree with this article, and I'm actually happy to see school again. My daughter needs to burn some damn energy!

This is the way it should be, IMO - let the parents be the parents.

My parents smoke pot every day. They drink beer and they drink whiskey. They have since before I was born. I'm pretty sure it was not to "escape" being a parent. It's just what they do. They are normal people who go to work every day and lead a pretty good life.
The whole "Just Say No" thing confused me as a kid, because I knew my parents did these things, but nothing bad ever came of it, so why say no? I realize they are probably more of an exception than the rule, but it just wasn't a big deal in my house to smoke a joint.
Incidentally, me and my siblings never used drugs to try to escape our parents either. In fact, even after growing up in a house where pot was used daily, I never once smoked it until I was 32 years old. Go figure.

bondgurl, I know people that were in a similar situation to yours (including myself: my parents were beerfolk although some of their friends liked to smoke a joint) and I find they are more well-adjusted when it comes to alcohol and drugs than the people I know who were not exposed to it. And I hear more stories supporting this than not.

Why do you drink? Any drinking behavior could be put down to "weakness" by a self-righteous douchebag. I might drink 2 or 3 times a year, and I don't chalk it up to weakness when I do.

As I asked an earlier poster, how many kids do you have?

Good article, now Bitch PhD needs to write one espousing the virtues of drug and alcohol use among we teachers! If you parents out there think you need something to take the edge off every now and then - imagine how I feel after seeing 100+ teens on a daily basis!

Alcohol and (thanks to big Pharm) drugs are a more and more present factor in the lives of kids... hell, parents are looking for an OTC solution if the little ones aren't "properly socializing" at age 3... and look at how many different vaccines we give kids now as opposed to, say, 20-30 years ago (hmm... odd, with the huge spike in autism, too...) They're here, they're queer (not that there's anything wrong with it), get used to it. There are healthy ways and unhealthy ways to interact with drugs and alcohol, and I'll raise a toast to any parent who can show their kids how to be smart about such choices... saves the public school system a whole helluva lotta work!

Viva la lifestyle European!!!

"It smells like the art teacher's office."

If you don't want kids, then by all means don't have them. But the "overpopulation" argument is lame, and dismissing people's children as having kids "just for the fucking sake of saying 'Yay! I reproduced!'" is just foolish and obnoxious. People have kids because hello, fucking = children. Women who are educated and well off tend to deliberately limit the number of children they bear. If you're worried about overpopulation, you'd be better off talking about educating and empowering women in poor countries than snarking about other people's choices--especially if (as I assume) you don't take kindly to people telling you that you *should* have kids.

LOL, do whatcha like as long as you don't get caught, since the Powers that Be will flip if they hear about teachers doing drugs!

Re. public schooling and drug education, *I'll* raise a toast to any teacher who actually educates kids about drugs despite the simplistic nonsense mandated by various agencies....

Our versions was the computer teachers classroom, as in "It smells like Parksy's classroom out here."

PS: Bitch_PhD, re: teachers educating kids about drugs - you should have met Parksy.

HAH! More like, "It smells like the AP US History teacher's office"... ... if I had an office... and if I smoked pot... I have only two things against pot, really... first, smoke kills my eyes, and second... stoned surfer potheads... after 12 years in Santa Barbara, if I hear, "Yo, bra! Wanna catch some gnarly waves and chill with the kind?" one more time... grrr...

This last summer I was in Europe with a group of students and actually got to teach them about drinking wine and the different kinds of beers... a little appreciation class, if you will, on location... the kids noticed quickly in Europe that a lot of people drink but that you don't see very many drunk-off-their-ass people stumbling around and being obnoxious... hmm... why is THAT? (well... except for American tourists, that is...)