When Ronald and Carolyn Moulton let their daughter and several of her friends drink at their Danvers, Massachusetts home after their high school prom, they did not think that they were doing anything wrong. After all, they took away all of the teenagers’ keys before allowing them to imbibe any of the numerous cases of beer and hard liquor. Ronald even joined them. Even after they were sentenced to forty hours of court-ordered community service, eighteen months of probation, and paid a five hundred dollar fine, the Moultons still contend that they did the right thing that night because no one got hurt. Unfortunately, they are not alone in that opinion.
With teenage fatalities skyrocketing in recent years due to alcohol related automobile accidents, the newest trend in teenage drinking is for parents to allow underage children to consume alcohol at home under their supervision. While parents think that they are providing their kids with an exemplary and safe alternative to drunk driving, they are setting the dangerous example that it is all right to pick and choose which laws to follow. Even more disturbing is that they do so with little more than a slap on the wrist, as current criminal and civil sanctions often do little to deter parents from hosting such parties. . . .