To Beer or not to Beer. Your kids birthday party is coming up -- should you tap the keg, or keep it drier than a new diaper? We get the bloggers going as Daddy Clay and Daddy Brad read some of their favorite responses which range from fantastically decadent to soberingly disciplined. Whatever side you choose remember the drinking age, your home address, and of course to drink responsibly. DadLabs Ep. 214 The Lounge.

 

Daddy Clay: Daddy Clay.
Daddy Brad: Daddy Brad.
Daddy Clay: This week we’re gonna be talking on a topic that is surprisingly controversial.
Daddy Brad: Paper versus plastic.
Daddy Clay: That kind of social issue. The question - beer at children’s birthday parties.
Daddy Brad: It’s a kid’s party, not a party for the adults. Heck, we didn’t even have alcohol at our wedding. I bet that was a freakin’ roaring party wasn’t it?
Daddy Clay: Now in order to get some feedback on this, I don’t want to give away my own personal bias on the issue.
Daddy Brad: Yeah me neither.
Daddy Clay: So to remain neutral I said what I should do is I should solicit some opinions on this. So I turned on my Google machine and I went out the onto the inter-webs and I asked a bunch of my favorite daddy bloggers and mommy bloggers what they thought. And also, as you know Daddy Brad I am a regular columnist at gather.com.
Daddy Brad: Isn’t that special.
Daddy Clay: You can find me there at daddyclay.gather.com. And so I published a question there, what do you think gatherers about this question – beer at birthday parties and the responses were, were surprising.
Daddy Brad: Yeah it seems like that, the folks were pretty much very passionate about which side of the aisle they’re on.
Daddy Clay: Yeah, yeah and it was really – the world evidently divides between gatherers and bloggers because they’re pretty much on either side of the fence.
Daddy Brad: Yeah way over there.
Daddy Clay: I mean my daddy bloggers you know sort of ranged from you know saying, its okay if you’re responsible. John Havens from blog talk radio said, you know its fine, I’ve gone to kids parties, there’s a barbeque and it’s totally appropriate he says. If there’s a part inside someone’s house where there isn’t adult food then maybe it would be a no-no. But he was pretty much on it. Travis Holmes observed that – and Travis is at, his blog is The Holmes. That he said it is totally okay invited people but that while people would bring beer to a kids birthday party they wouldn’t really drink it.
Daddy Brad: Hum.
Daddy Clay: So he said it’s pretty much just me and a few other dads nursing a few brews throughout the afternoon and at the end of it we were left with a huge fridge full of beer, not the worst side effect of a party. So that’s seems like a win to me if you have a party.
Daddy Brad: Yeah that’s good, that’s good. You know but I don’t think Priscilla from Gather, one of your Gather folks would be going. She said, no way, in fact I won’t even go to a birthday party for children if there’s going to be alcohol present. You know I wonder if that would translate to restaurants or if she’s eating all the time at Burger King and Chick-Fil-A. And Bridgett, Bridgett says right there with Priscilla, I say absolutely not. I know people who do and I think it’s absurd, absurd. These guys are absurd, it’s a kid’s party not a party for the adults. Heck, we didn’t even have alcohol at our wedding. I bet that was a freakin’ roaring party wasn’t it?
Daddy Clay: You know it’s pretty, a long way away from Sarah over at suburban oblivion, suburban oblivion. She’s says I can barely deal with my own three kids without drinking bringing another 20 others around at once makes alcohol a requirement.
Daddy Brad: Oh that’s interesting because Heather – Heather says a requirement, only if your family is a big bunch of alcoholics. Beer isn’t a kid drink and if adults can’t go an hour or two without beer then there’s a big problem with them that they likely aren’t ready to admit. Maybe we need to hook them up for an intervention.
Daddy Clay: Now one of my favorite comments came from Momo Folley and Momo Folley has a blog Momo Follies and I really liked her response because it was both an opinion, a take and it was also sort of a tip. And she said, I’m all for beers at birthday parties, how else can you get parents to do the limbo? Naturally, oh wait that was supposed to be for the kids. Also, I find a sweating beer bottle is great for putting on those little tattoos.
Daddy Brad: Momo…
Daddy Clay: So there’s a hint for you.
Daddy Brad: That’s great.
Daddy Clay: Beer bottle can be – I love that, I think that’s beautiful. Yes, you gotta have beer, you gotta have beer at the party and you can use it to put on tattoos.
Daddy Brad: That’s a good thing. You know maybe…
Daddy Clay: I’ve often found drinking beers leads to tattoos like the ones that don’t wash off.
Daddy Brad: Well it probably would at this party. Kimmie L. says, the receptionist in my office had a birthday party for her 6-year-old son and ordered five kegs. She got so drunk she was hung over for 2 days. Bad idea.
Daddy Clay: That’s totally over kill, totally over kill, three kegs would have been plenty.
Daddy Brad: Yeah I think so and you probably would have ended up with a tattoo and other things.
Daddy Clay: Three kegs was more than enough.
Daddy Brad: Yeah, oh Cyber Gwyn, Cyber Gwyn here says, I remember parties for kids that ended so badly because a few of the adults over did it. I don’t remember them fondly from my childhood, so no. You know I bet those adults don’t remember it either. I mean good Lord come on. They didn’t go to that kid’s birthday party to get wasted.
Daddy Clay: Yeah, Yeah I do, there was actually one birthday party that I remember and it was a birthday party with this, you know kind of like a block party, birthday whole thing and the whole neighborhood was there. And so there was a barbeque and people were drinking. They had to set up this big blow up thing and you know it had sprinklers on it and you would slide through it an splash. It was cute and the kids really loved it but some as it happens, some drunk guy you know jumps in there and starts sliding around, isn’t that funny, I think the dude tweaked his knee.
Daddy Brad: How is your knee my friend? Dude that was ugly.
Daddy Clay: Do we have to, did you have to out me?
Daddy Brad: Dude to see you cruising down a slip-n-slide…
Daddy Clay: Okay so I think little Tony whose blog Concreteans by the way is really funny, really good if you’re kind of skate park guy, skate park dad, alternative dad, Concreteans is a good one for you. You know he says it’s – the party is certainly much more fun with beer but the aftermath red mommy stink eye would be much worse. Sort of depends on the mom boss to dad ratio, how much adult supervision is available. So he’s sort of saying yeah you can have some beer but there may be some mom fallout on that.
Daddy Brad: Yeah could be, could be. I guess it comes down to a personal decision.
Daddy Clay: Yeah I think my favorite response were those like these, Looky Daddy great, fantastic, hilarious blog. Of course, he sent me a funny. He said Clay, I’m confused are you asking if beer at my kid’s birthday party is okay? Or are you asking me whether or not we serve beer or a different alcohol like vodka because honestly, the first question doesn’t even make sense. So I guess he’s pro.
Daddy Brad: He’s pro.
Daddy Clay: Yeah you know and Robert at Coochie-Coos, great design product blog – moderation and responsibility are key, that’s very Robert. He says, I don’t think having drinking games or beer races are a good idea. So…
Daddy Brad: Yeah that’s probably not a good idea, at least not for big people on the slip-n-slide. Here’s one I don’t understand. This one came from somebody I think that wanted to be middle of the road but kind-of went otherwise. This is from Nanya Hawk and Nanya says, I wouldn’t serve beer… now if I had one in the fridge and someone asked me for they could sure have it. To plan on serving beer at a kid’s birthday party, well that’s just a plain no-no. So I guess if you kind-of premeditate it, plan on beer it’s bad but…
Daddy Clay: So if someone steals the beer…
Daddy Brad: If it simultaneously turns into a rip roaring drunk, that’s fine.
Daddy Clay: If somebody sneaks in the kitchen…
Daddy Brad: Yeah…
Daddy Clay: And gets loaded in a bathroom…
Daddy Brad: It’s okay.
Daddy Clay: Fine.
Daddy Brad: Fine, I didn’t plan it.
Daddy Clay: I understand that.
Daddy Brad: Yeah, interesting.
Daddy Clay: Neil Pollack came across with his usual subtle comment. Neil of offsprung.com if you haven’t been there to see the group of blogs that are there you really need to go check that out, some funny, funny bloggers over there. Neil Pollack, author of AlternaDad says, and I can’t even do a Neil. I wish I could do, like here’s my Neil, it’s like why is it even a question I mean have be become so completely neutered by kiddie culture that we can’t drink beer in the presence of children, good Lord. So that’s my Neil Pollack.
Daddy Brad: That’s not good Clay. You looked like Squidward.
Daddy Clay: Evidently, he’s – my favorite, my favorite would have to be, my favorite has got to be Andy and Andy writes – babylovesdisco is his bit. He says beer is better than bong hits.
Daddy Brad: Yeah I would, I would agree.
Daddy Clay: Okay so we want to know what you think about this issue as well, and we actually gonna run a contest, it’s new for us here at Dad Labs. We’re gonna give you prizes, we’re gonna choose two comments that we think are particularly pithy and that doesn’t necessarily mean what you do after you have a beer, we like. The first will be a complete set of Due Dads DVD’s.
Daddy Brad: Wow!
Daddy Clay: That’s The Man’s Survival Guide to Pregnancy and Due Dads, The Man’s Guide to Labor and Delivery both DVD’s for the number two comment. The number one comment will get the Baby Bath Gate here, this is a safety device you put up at the bathtub that keeps baby hitting their head or chipping their teeth on the fixtures. This is particularly good for drunk parents.
Daddy Brad: To use while you’re in the bathtub.
Daddy Clay: Yeah maybe when you’re in the tub.
Daddy Brad: Never want to bathe your kids without one.
Daddy Clay: So drop us a comment, what do you think, beer at kid’s birthday parties – yes or no. You like getting’ a little toasted talking to your buddies or is this really about the kids? Let us know what you think.
Daddy Brad: Or both.
Daddy Clay: And win a prize.
Daddy Brad: Yeah.
Daddy Clay: Alright that’s it for us, here from the Dad Lab Lounge. Prizes… prizes… giveaways… goodies… schwag.
Daddy Brad: Dude these people are just, I mean this is really controversial stuff. I think Pollack’s drinking when he’s bloggin’ like a lot!
Daddy Clay: Isn’t everybody? – I apologize to everybody that reads my column at Gather.
Daddy Brad: Yeah, we all do.
Daddy Clay: We ripped up their nice…
Daddy Brad: I know that. I didn’t say anything bad about them.
Daddy Clay: They’re nice people.
Daddy Brad: You know just comments on comments.