During their recent visit to us our friends from Slovakia shocked us by offering, as routine, non-alcoholic beer to their daughters aged 12, 10 and 2 years. The first time was at the beach on a hot day when dad came back from the beach shop and asked his children if they wanted a cold beer. I thought he was joking, but apparently not and he handed out the beers - reassuring me with the information that, "it's okay, it's alcohol free" and saying that his children love beer and the two year old has a particular liking for it. The second time, at dinner, my adult daughter was also with us and expressed her horror that the parents should be instilling in their children a beer drinking habit. The parents were equally surprised at the strong feelings expressed and kept repeating that "it's only beer and it's alcohol free".
So, what do you think grans? A harmless habit or a slippery slope to ruin?
