Should there be an age limit on drinking coffee?
While I wouldn’t let a young child drink coffee, I don’t think there should be a law setting an age limit for drinking caffeine. Parents should decide when their children are ready to drink it. What’s next, dictating how much sugar a person can eat? Banning all fast food? Having the government raise our kids instead of letting parents make any rules? In general, parents decide what’s right for their kids. Also, certain cultures think nothing of giving kids small amounts of coffee. A friend of mine is a preschool teacher, and she had many kids from Brazil in her class. Their parents thought nothing of giving them a little coffee in the morning. If you’re against giving your kids caffeine the way I am, then don’t let them have it. It’s as simple as that.
I agree with you that caffeine is not the greatest substance for children to ingest and I don’t allow mine to consume it. For some reason, they do enjoy the flavor of coffee, and they do have an occasional decaf coffee. I don’t believe, though, that it would be possible to enforce an age limit on caffeine. Restaurant staff would have to guess the age of a child, or rely on parents to tell the truth… or require a birth certificate. There’s also nothing that would stop parents from purchasing caffeinated drinks for the home and permitting the children to consume them. We are beginning to see more awareness in places like schools, where caffeine is often no longer permitted. In my daughters’ school, all the soda machines were replaced with water machines and they’re not permitted to bring carbonated or caffinated drinks from home. Other than an institutional enviornment such as this, I just don’t see how it could be enforced. I’d certainly be ticked off if it got to a point at which the
