DR. WALLACE: I'm 18 and dating a really nice girl at my high school. I play on the varsity football team and am a senior who starts at my position on the field.

Not only is this girl the girl of my dreams, but her parents both really like me and get along great with me. In fact, last weekend her father and I watched a few NFL football games together on Sunday afternoon. We both enjoyed the games and talked a lot about football strategy and so forth.

His dad drank about three beers during the two games we watched and at halftime of the first game, he gave me a beer! I tried to say "no," but he told me it was all right and that he was only going to give me one beer in total, so I took it. He was true to his word as he got himself a new beer during the second game but he gave me no more. He did give me a Pellegrino sparkling water during the second game.

When the games ended, his daughter drove me home. Everything was fine until my father told me smelled alcohol on my breath and asked me if I had been drinking. I then told my father the full and complete truth and he blew up! He started yelling at me and he also called my girlfriend's father a jerk!

My dad is now threatening to hold me out of one of my upcoming football games as my punishment, He is going to let me play this next game because our coach has me in the game plan, but he's threatening to keep me out of uniform for the following game.

I know I made a mistake, but I feel his punishment is harsh and impacts my team, my coaches and our school. I only took the beer in an effort to bond with my girlfriend's father. I see her as my potential future wife and I always want to be on the good side of her parents. — It Was My Mistake, via email

IT WAS MY MISTAKE: You indeed did make a big mistake. Drinking alcohol under the age of 21 is not acceptable and you knew that your own father had a "no alcohol" rule, hence his fiery response to absorbing the facts about exactly what happened.

Your father can contact her father to emphasize that he does not want you to be offered any more alcohol under any circumstance going forward. But if you wish to keep your father from potentially blowing up at your possible future father-in-law, perhaps you could suggest that you serve a different punishment that might keep you on the gridiron as well.

Commit to your father that you will not spend social time at her house with her parents for a full month and that you will not be allowed to date her for a week or two, even though she did nothing wrong. Explain that this punishment will only affect you and her, rather than everyone who counts on you related to your football team.

I LOVE WATCHING GAMES WITH DAD, BUT MY SCHEDULE IS TIGHT!

DR. WALLACE: My dad and I enjoy watching sports together but I'm really busy with my high school academic, social and sports team life! I don't always have time to sit down and watch a two- or three-hour game live with him.

I love to watch sports, but I often can watch a streaming highlight feed or replay after the fact on my cellphone. I've gotten really good at avoiding hearing about the final score of a game I want to see and I can still be surprised one way or the other when I watch games the way I like to.

How can I explain this to my father? I don't want him to think I don't care about watching games with him, but I only have so much free time. — A Sports Fan Just Like My Dad, via email

A SPORTS FAN JUST LIKE MY DAD: I suggest that you plan ahead and be proactive. Instead of having to say you don't have time to watch a game with him on short notice, take the time to look over the sports television schedule a week in advance to see what is going to be broadcast in your area. Then pick one or two games (as your time permits) and commit in advance to scheduling that time to spend with your father enjoying the game live together.

Once you plan in advance, this will fit into your schedule naturally just like your other commitments do. Yes, you'll have to juggle some of your other commitments as they arise in the future, but you'll soon notice that you can set your schedule to be able to have time for your father that the two of you will truly enjoy spending together. This way you can mention to him during the week that you are "looking forward" to a scheduled game you two have planned to enjoy together.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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