After a recent verdict, many parents in Maui, Hawaii and elsewhere in the US certainly are. Nearly $700,000 was awarded to the parents of Lauren Crossan, an eighteen-year-old who fell to her death from a Maui hotel room. The teen, who was in town with chaperone Susanne Sadler, Susanne's daughter and another teen, was seen drinking alcohol within hours of reaching the hotel.

An arbitrator ordered Sadler to pay $690,000 to Crossan's family after finding the chaperone partially responsible for the girl's death.

Some schools are so concerned over getting into this kind of trouble that they're going so far as to purchase liability insurance. Some parents are considering it as well. Others feel that it's simply the American way to sue rather than accept responsibility for actions. And some fall in between: A lawyer representing the Crossan family, who has represented many such families whose children have been harmed in the care of other parents, basically said that crappy parenting leads to problems.

What do you think? Is it ridiculous for parents to consider purchasing liability insurance to cover themselves when children who are not their own find their way into their care, or is it just a sign of the times?

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There are few greater causes for celebration than a brand new baby, but one Polish mother started her celebrating a bit early, showing up at the delivery room with a blood alcohol level of 0.12, which would be the equivalent of drinking an entire bottle of wine.

At birth, the baby's blood alcohol level was 0.29, a level she should not even be close to attaining until well into her college years. The drunk mother could face up to five years in prison because of the celebration (or self-medication, whichever the case might be) for child endangerment.

I've known several people who drank before they even knew they were pregnant and the guilt over possibly harming the development of fetus they didn't realize was there was crushing. I can't imagine purposely getting drunk knowing full well that the baby is partaking everything you are.

Doctors say so far the baby appears fine and I hope for the child's sake she suffers no ill effects from her mother's poor judgment.

Music legend Lionel Richie recently had a little fun at his daughter, Nicole Richie's, expense. The singer was speaking at the TV Land Awards where he was being honored with the Icon Award when he had a few words to say about Ms. Richie.

Said Lionel: "Forget about surviving 40 years in the music business. Just surviving 27 and 1/2 years of Nicole Richie has been a struggle and a half." Richie went on to say he was a survivor for all the parents out there.

Nicole got her first shot at fame as Paris Hilton's sidekick in Fox television's The Simple Life. She later made more of a notorious name for herself spending time in jail (all of 82 minutes) after a conviction for driving under the influence of drugs. You may recall she was pulled over after rambling down a one-way street the wrong way. Now Nicole is known more for her three-month-old daughter Harlow than she is for her hard-partying ways. I'm sure Grandpa Lionel is ultimately very proud of her for being able to turn everything around--and giving him what parents always want--a grandbaby!

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Tatum O'Neal, star of television's hit series Rescue Me and former child celebrity, has been arrested. Ms. O'Neal, daughter of Ryan O'Neal and former wife of tennis champ John McEnroe, who won an Oscar for her performance in Paper Moon, was arrested in New York City for allegedly buying cocaine!

At her arraignment, the actress, now 44, offered no plea. She is due back in court on July 28th. O'Neal has made no small secret of her addiction problems. Recently, she reached out to another troubled young star, Britney Spears, in an effort to help turn the fallen pop starlet's life around.

Police allegedly found two bags of cocaine in one of O'Neal's front pockets after claiming to see her accept them from a man during a routine drug sweep. Prosecutors are recommending drug treatment rather than jail time for the star, who recounts her problems with both heroin and cocaine in a 2004 memoir titled "A Paper Life."

According to Perez Hilton, who always seems to know more (or claims to know more) than the average online media source, O'Neal claims she was researching the part of a junkie and not buying the cocaine for real. Perez also notes she asked the police if they knew who she was when they approached her. I don't care how good an actress she is, i don't think anyone's going to buy that story!

As a parent, you probably suspected that energy drinks like Red Bull aren't the healthiest things for a teen. But many look the other way when it comes to energy drinks as they are legal and a lot less harmful than a lot of other things the kids could be drinking.

It turns out there's more to energy drinks than meets the eye. For one thing, the caffeine level varies widely from brand to brand. While a 12 oz. Starbucks latte provides a 75 mg of caffeine, the same amount of Amp contains 107 mg and a Spike Shooter jolts the body with 428 mg. Students experiencing health problems after drinking energy drinks have led to schools in several states to ban the beverages.

But something far more troubling than hyperactivity or headaches has been observed in young athletes who regularly consume energy drinks.

And when high schoolers turn into college students, a whole new usage for energy drinks appears: as a cocktail mixer. Combining a caffeinated beverage with alcohol results in a wide awake drunk who is just as intoxicated, but doesn't feel it. According to a study in Academic Emergency Medicine, students who mixed energy drinks with alcohol got drunk twice as often as those who consumed plain alcohol and were more likely to be injured or require medical treatment while drinking. Also, collaborating the "toxic jock" research, the study found energy drink mixers were more likely to be victims or perpetrators of aggressive sexual behavior.

When dealing with kids and energy drinks, the best defense against this problem might be a good offense. Teaching your kids from an early age to make healthy choices when it comes to eating and drinking is essential.

• Lay off the soda. Many places now offer milk or juice instead of pop with kid meals.
• Plain water is healthy and a money saving selection for the entire family when eating out.
• If your child is excessively tired, consider an earlier bedtime, even if it's not cool.
• Sometimes lethargy is confused with tiredness and physical activity like a brisk walk, bike ride or impromptu dance session with an Ipod can be just as effective as a Red Bull.

If energy drinks have the potential to be a gateway beverage to troublesome behavior, it's good to know in order to nip the problem in the bud.