The answer probably should be no but it got me thinking. As a kid I had a bit of beer for lunch during the weekend often – you kind of have to neutralize your stomach with all the pork fat and cabbage. It was an equation of health an availability – no soda drinks or juices were available then. So it was a bit natural for me to introduce Lucas to beer in my hometown.

He was horrified. “Mum, oh my god, no – I can’t drink beer!”. Yes, you can – it is non alcoholic version and it won’t hurt you – and you won’t feel like it is forbidden fruit in middle/high school!

Not the parent of the year, right? Well, I am not worried – I think we need to expose children to different experiences in safe environment. Of course, when we took them to a beer festival on the last day of our trip – I got lots of looks (from my kids not the Czechs) as to “really? they only have beer here and its all adults!” – well, so?? Talk to adults, meet my friends, eat sausage, enjoy yourself – and drink water. And they did.

We really pushed for independence on this trip and got some stares for it from strangers. Go and find the bathroom on the train, go and buy ice cream on your own, get a ticket for a tram, no – we are not taking taxi from the train station – help us find the metro station and carry the luggage … this is not rocket science. Oh and did I mention go on the totally crazy ride?

Lucas will be worried that this picture or blog post gets to the principal but I watched Captain Fantastic on the plane back – and got some new ideas 🙂 Watch out!