Democracy Dies in Darkness

Carolyn Hax: Dad snitches to teen that mom drank while pregnant

Wife is gobsmacked that husband, without warning or evidence, told their teen that mom’s drinking might have caused teen’s ADHD.

4 min
(Illustration by Nick Galifianakis/For The Washington Post)
Column by

Adapted from an online discussion.

Dear Carolyn: My husband and I have been married almost 20 years and have two teens. I have been helping our younger teen (“Izzy,” 16) get diagnosed for ADHD. Last fall, just after we got a prescription for ADHD medication, my husband told Izzy that I drank alcohol during pregnancy and that they might want to consider fetal alcohol spectrum disorder as a cause of the ADHD. I did not find out about this conversation until about 10 days later, when they both confronted me. Izzy looked up FAS/FASD and was convinced they had it.

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