Kids Love a Liquor Store

If you follow this blog, you no doubt have noticed that I really enjoy beer, wine, and whiskey. I like to think I’m pretty good at pairing wine and beer with food. So at many meals, I will comment to Mrs. P90 about how a certain beer or wine complements said meal. As a result, my young daughters frequently hear us talk about wine and beer.

I also happen to be a homebrewer. It seams that the girls see that as just another type of “cooking that daddy does.” It’s not unusual when they are playing house to overhear them saying “I’m making pork ribs, I’m making meatballs, I’m making beer.” And since the girls do a lot of shopping with us, it’s not uncommon for them to join us on trips to the beer or wine store. So sometimes when playing together, they will say things like “I’m going to Trader Joe’s and then the beer store.”

I try not to get weirded out by this. After all, I hope we’re leading by example and teaching the girls that alcohol should be enjoyed with friends, family, and good food, and not pounded in the alley or the back of a movie theater (i.e. there is no reason for a product like Four Loco to exist). My general philosophy is that if you are bothered about my kids talking about beer or wine, that’s your problem. It’s not like they drink the stuff, they know it’s for “mommies and daddies.”

However, recently, my five year-old started telling my wife that she “wanted to go to the liquor store.” At every afternoon pick-up, she’d say “mom, I want to go to the liquor store! We have not been there in a while.” She was saying this a lot, and it started to get a little troubling. So a few weeks ago, we sat her down, and explained that the liquor store is for adults and that kids shouldn’t really be talking about it. My five year-old burst into tears and ran away. We didn’t understand the severity of her reaction, but she did stop talking about going to the liquor store.

Then yesterday she said to my wife “I want to go to the store where we got the Halloween stuff and the batteries* for daddy.” My wife said “Oh, you mean the dollar store?” Five year-old responds “The dollar store? That’s what I thought was called the liquor store!” I guess that explains the tears when we told her she couldn’t talk about it and it was for adults only…

*I don’t know why $150+ fuzz pedals sound better with crappy dollar store 2-for$1 9-volt batteries, but they do.