Our social dilemma today comes from Jake who is a dad who got in some trouble for letting his child do something. Here's his email:
Hi Jaime. I know you do a social dilemma every day and I'm hoping you can read mine on the radio. I recently caught a lot of flack for letting my son do something that I have never thought was a big deal, and still don't. But I wanted to know what you and your gang thought about it. On the first day of school for my son, who is nine, I post the obligatory first day picture on facebook. But ours was different. I had taken my son out to breakfast for his first day. In the picture, we were both drinking coffee. That's it...just drinking coffee together. Well, after posting this, you would have thought I was a horrible father. I got so many responses from people saying I shouldn't be giving coffee to a child that young, that it was bad parenting, that I was teaching him to become addicted to caffeine at a young age and more. My parents gave me coffee when I was a kid and I'm passing down the tradition. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. What do you think, and please ask on the radio what other people think. I don't think I'm the only one who does this. Please help me out. Thanks so much. Love listening to you - Jake.
Thank you Jake. For me, I can remember my mom giving me coffee as a kid, but she drank it black so it was not at all enticing to me. It really wasn't until after school when I got a job that I started drinking coffee. I think those are good points about the caffeine, but I don't know that it's all that horrible. What do you think? Is Jake being a bad dad or is it okay for nine year olds to drink coffee. Let's help him out.