A Boston Family

What do the Whiskey Priest, Lucky Mint Coolattas from Dunkin' Donuts and copious amounts of vomit have in common? Answer: St. Patrick’s Day in Boston, for families a disappointing rated-R experience. St. Patrick’s Day in the city potentially exposes children to dangerous levels of intoxication and resulting questionable behavior (i.e., public urination, fights, swearing, etc.). We love Boston. We like shamrocks. (A fun fact is that rumors suggest the shamrock was used by St. Patrick to represent the holy trinity.) And who doesn't want a pot of gold? Amongst our combined 12 ethnic backgrounds, our family is part Irish, so please do not think we are being St. Patrick's Day Scrooges. We are not trying to rain in anyone’s Lucky Charms but suggest if your goal is cultural entertainment, beware the Boston St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

Looking at the Shamrock Another Way

In 2010 the BBC conducted a study and reported 30% of children are scared of adults drinking.[1] A personal anecdote about an early memory of inappropriate adult drinking is from seven years of age witnessing a man pass out on the beach in Florida. More than two decades later, the scene and feeling of fright are vivid. The incident was an anomaly on an otherwise benign public beach that could not have predicted and subsequently avoided. St. Patrick's Day in Boston on the other hand is predictably troublesome. The Boston Police Department reported in 2013 at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in South Boston alone (which by the way, if you live under the Blarney Stone, is under scrutiny for its anti-gay stance) they handed out 336 citations for drinking in public, made 26 arrests for disorderly conduct and there was one account of assault for “throat-kicking.”[2,3] This year, officers assigned to the parade issued 293 citations for public drinking and made five arrests, two for disorderly conduct and three for public drinking. One subject was placed in protective custody.[4] This leads to the second area of concern - the normalization of binge drinking.

Sign of the Season on Seaport Blvd

Exposure to alcohol abuse, in addition to being scary, normalizes the behavior. Children who see this type of behavior are more likely to emanate it when they are older, and according to the Boston Public Health Commission, binge drinking is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States.[5,6] In Boston, St. Patrick’s Day coincides with a sharp spike in alcohol-related emergency department visits. Rates have steadily increased in recent years with nearly 120 alcohol-related emergency department visits on March 17-18, 2012.[6] Even though an experience seeing adults binge drink on St. Patrick's Day may be an isolated experience, in reflection later in life, a child will know their parents brought them to an event that was predictably toxic in this regard and that sends a message that the behavior is accepted on some level.

Furthermore, while an isolated experience viewing heavy intoxication presumably will not cause lasting damage to a child, poor behavior resulting from intoxication could be more traumatic. Obviously any child who witnessed the near-winner of the Darwin awards for natural selection who was injured falling off a rooftop along the parade route in 2012 may be particularly upset.[7] It is not implausible to think a child may see such a traumatic alcohol-related incident on St. Patrick's Day in Boston. The incident could be discomforting, such as a show of a stranger's private parts, or violent like a fight.

We know our own children will have experiences where they, witness heavy intoxication despite our best intentions. Still, certain days and places in Boston (in addition to St. Patrick's Day, many sports games and win celebrations) are as mentioned before predictably troublesome and avoidable.

St. Patrick's Parade 2011, the first and last time I went

Nevertheless we understand why taking children to the parade seems like a fun idea. South Boston CAN, an organization committed to decreasing substance abuse in the neighborhood, established Family Friendly Zones along the parade route “to ensure there are safe and sober venues to watch the proceedings.” For anyone planning on attending a future parade, the Family Friendly Zones are located at The Action Center at 424 West Broadway, Old Colony at the corner of Dorchester Avenue and Rev. Burke Street and The Laboure Center at 275 West Broadway and feature face-painting and snacks.[8] Despite good intentions, we remain unconvinced these zones are able to shelter children from behavior that may be dangerous or frightening. In 2012 the Boston Police Department reported the following: 

"At about 1:10pm . . . 

Unfortunately, as this example demonstrates, violators of public drinking laws may be arrested for inappropriate behavior near children, but only after they have caused a problem in front of those children. It is certainly not an isolated incident either. The Rush/Doherty family who attended this year (2014) with young children was quoted in a Boston Globe article expressing concern about the level of intoxication and behavior they witnessed.[10]