Caffeine and Kids

I recently met a friend at a local Starbucks on a late afternoon.   Two young men were ahead of me as I headed to the store.  One held the door for me and even greeted me with a friendly smile.  In this case they were "really young" men.  My guess is that they were middle school age.  They were definitely the youngest Starbucks patrons I had met, at least without a parent or guardian.  While I was ahead of them in line, I did linger long enough to see what two boys their age would order.  One had a regular iced coffee and the other an Iced Caramel Macchiato. 

While I will acknowledge we live in a world where Starbucks has passed McDonalds as the top restaurant chain, I have to wonder what we have come to when grade school kids are kicking back coffee after school.  I did not start drinking coffee until I was in college.  It seemed like the adult thing to do; again I stress the word "adult."  The initial article for this issue deals with sleep deprivation among teenagers. One unfortunate result is that many teens rely on caffeine to help them function.  It is not just coffee, but often high powered energy drinks and even carbonated beverages like Mountain Dew. 

If we sense the possibility of this is a detrimental behavior, I think the best thing to do is have a healthy conversation with them.  We need to be aware that one of their responses might be that they are only modeling what they see in us.  While that is a valid point, the difference is adults are not still growing and developing.  Sleep deprivation and too much caffeine can be harmful to a teen.