Jeremy Watson: 'The little imp is swigging a bottle of lager'

The card portrayed a coquettish, elegantly dressed and coiffed Audrey Hepburn lookalike about to tuck into a chilled glass of chardonnay, or whatever white wine was made of back in those far-off days.

Inside the card, Daughter No 1 had expanded on her homespun philosophy. "This is the motto that has got me through the bad times," she explained. "Just like mum and dad!"

Well, OK, up to a point, but have we really taught our children that the best way to deal with the little stresses of daily life is to turn to the bottle? Clearly we have. When did we start teaching it? Another card, from an old friend of mine told the truth. It showed Daughter No 2, an angelic two-year-old on a camping holiday during which she managed to locate the exhaust pipe of his car and smear herself and her lovely little floral dress with black soot. In the next frame, the playful little imp is swigging from a bottle of lager and we let her go on long enough to take her picture. This pictorial proof of her youthful indiscretions, is now pinned up on the wall of her university bedroom.

What would her grandmother's generation think? I am sure they would be shocked and horrified by the drinking antics of the current young generation. In the hope that my aunt - now in her mid-80s - could point out the error of her ways and signpost a more gentle era that didn't involve getting blootered at every opportunity, I put the two of them on the phone. "Happy birthday," she said, "I hope you are not going to go out and get drunk like me and your grandmother did when I was 18?"

So I feel a little bit better now. It's not my fault that my daughters are inexorably heading towards a spell in The Priory, suffering from "exhaustion". My parents passed on the curse of alcohol to me and so I have passed it on to my children. Like me, they will have to build their own relationship with the dreaded booze. Unlike me, they won't be able to get three-for-two offers, discounts and loyalty bonus points from supermarkets for alcohol purchases as the tide of opinion turns against our all-pervasive booze culture. So perhaps there is hope for a future less filled with brimming glasses. Let's all drink to that. n