My Nine Year Old Son Is Depressed In His Bedroom. Should I Let Him Out?

Question: The extended lockdown is really affecting my nine-year-old son, who is an only child. He desperately misses his friends, not to mention sports and family activities like helping me bring my empties to the bottle bank.

He used to be such a happy, enthusiastic child but now he’s just grumpy all the time if I don’t give him any of my Oyster Bay.

It’s like he’s depressed and it breaks my heart. Should I let him out of his bedroom?

Answer: Don’t be so hard on yourself. Your behaviour is simply a coping mechanism. It’s important children experience the highs and lows of alcohol abuse because they constitute a major part of adult life in Ireland.

Just because we’re in lockdown, it doesn’t mean you should abandon your son’s education.

Whenever I misbehaved as a child, my mother would always reminded me of that old Irish saying,

If your child should go astray,

then they shall have no Oyster Bay’.