A few months ago when buying wine, I was asked for ID. The cashier, a young person, said she was just following rules, even though it was obvious that I'm well past the legal age to purchase alcohol.

Hearing a recent National Public Radio (NPR) Saturday morning program reminded me of this event -- not just about alcohol, but the dangers of following governmental rules without using common sense.

The NPR report was about Dr. Christopher Ratte, a classical professor of archeology at the University of Michigan, who took his 7-year-old son, Leo, to see a Detroit Tigers game.

On the way to their seats, they stopped at a concession stand where Dr. Ratte bought his son a lemonade. Later, a security person noticed Leo sipping the lemonade, which was not just any old lemonade. It was "hard lemonade," an alcoholic beverage. Dr. Ratte was described as very knowledgeable about antiquities but had no idea that "hard lemonade" was anything other than an expensive ballpark lemonade.

Leo was then rushed off to a hospital where, apparently, they did not find any alcohol in his system. So, either the lemonade company is skimping on the stuff that makes their product "hard" or the 7-year-old metabolized the alcohol at record speed.

Sounds like this should be the end of the story. No. It gets crazier. The police said they were sorry, but they had to call Child Protective Services (CPS) because that was the rule. Despite no previous home problems, CPS determined that according to their rules, the father might be a danger to his son. CPS said they were sorry and put Leo in foster care for a few days.

Then the case went before a judge who said that Leo could go home to his mother, also a professor at the University of Michigan, but only if his father moved out. The judge said he was sorry to do that but indicated that rules had to be followed.

Dr. Ratte was permitted to go home after a week or so. The authorities seemed to agree that the situation had gotten out of hand, but everyone was just following the rules.

Yes, we do need to protect children who are truly in danger of being neglected or abused. But in this case, we have concession management not doing what needs to be done and a father who is naïve about the latest ways of packaging alcoholic beverages.

At least three questions emerge from this weird scenario. First, what is the concessionaire's responsibility regarding alcohol purchases? If a cashier can insist on carding me, a grandmother, for a bottle of wine, what happened when the lemonade was clearly bought for a child?

Second, did anyone in authority worry about the emotional consequences for this child who one minute was happily sitting next to his dad watching a baseball game and then rapidly encountered hospitalization and a foster home?

But perhaps the most serious issue is that of following governmental rules when the rules don't make sense. If the police, CPS and the judge all felt the need to apologize for following the rules, then those rules are fatally flawed.

The Ratte's family saga is strange and points out that today's parents must be aware of dangers to which children can inadvertently be exposed. But mainly it should remind us that while governmental rules are necessary in civilized societies, they also have to make sense and be humane. Carding grandmothers who buy wine is silly but flattering. Decisions made due to Leo's lemonade were excessive and foolish.

Diane W. Mufson is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Huntington. She is a former citizen member of The Herald-Dispatch editorial board and is a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page. Her e-mail is dwmufson@comcast.net.