“No one asks us about alcohol and suddenly when you think about it, you realise it’s all around you all the time.” – MCP, aged 10
“Most of the children here don’t like being around alcohol.”
“Pubs are open when I walk to school. I feel scared because I walk past drunk people when they’re out in the morning drinking.”
Visibility
“Where do we see alcohol? Everywhere!”
“I was going to a football match and lots of people were drinking alcohol on the train.”
“When you go to the till, you pass the big alcohol bit.”
“People want to get as much as possible, so they go to the shop and get a lot of it before it closes.”
“There are four aisles of alcohol in the Asda.”
“When you’re on holiday at a hotel, you see alcohol everywhere and lots of people drinking at the airport too.”
“Every time I go to get a snack from the fridge, it’s staring me in the face.”
“Sometimes in the park, the bins have been turned upside down and there are empty bottles and rubbish all over the ground.”
“Sometimes it’s on these big boards [in shops]. It says buy 2 for £1 or something like that – it’s adverts for alcohol. Or in magazines. There’s always adverts for alcohol.”
“I remember at my brother’s football match, there were alcohol advertisements all around the pitch.”
“The Champions League sponsor is Heineken. The logo is green and black. At the start of the match, they announce the sponsor and you can see the adverts all over the stadium.”
“Adverts can make people make bad choices. You see people buying lots of alcohol just before the shop closes.”
“They might think it’s really cool because of the way it’s designed.”
“It’s harmful. It’s just telling children to buy it even though they’re not old enough. It’s not a good message for children.”
Safety
“Life with alcohol may be good to adults, but more than unsafe for children.”
“Children have a right to play… [but] when adults or teenagers are drunk [in the park], children will feel unsafe or scared or children will just run away.”
“When you’re drunk, you kind of don’t know what you’re doing, and you might accidentally hurt someone. If you have kids, you might hurt them.”
“My sister tripped over bottles in the stairs – she’s four – and she cut her face.”
“I see people still being under the influence the next day.”
“Children might feel unsafe if they see people drunk, throwing bottles and see broken glass on the ground in the street.”
“You don’t know what to do.”
“I had a family member who got smashed over the head, so I don’t feel safe around alcohol.”
“When people are drunk, they can get into fights quicker because they aren’t thinking [things] through. It makes me feel worried for that person.”
Relationships with adults
“It sometimes makes people feel left out at parties when everyone is drinking. Children can feel sad, ignored and not listened to.”
Health & Wellbeing
“I know when my Dad is drunk because he just comes home and goes straight to the sofa instead of going to bed upstairs.”
“Adults should watch how much they drink. It’s okay to drink sometimes but don’t drink lots.”