Watching Can of Worms

[crystal**flake]

And they were talking about letting 16 year olds drink.

Wrong or right.

[i-need-a-martini]

It depends.

Being Italian, I always had wine (mixed with lemonade) with dinner from a very early age. I have never seen my parents drunk and have never been blotto myself. I usually drink a glass of red every night with dinner and sometimes will have a few when out somewhere. But never over the top.

Through my teens, whilst my friends were getting tanked, I just never bothered. From what I saw, the ones who abused alcohol the most were the ones who were not allowed to drink. Even worse were the ones who watched their fathers slowly going through a carton of beer in an afternoon.

My kids have always been allowed wine with lemonade. My daughter loves it. My son won't touch alcohol although he will have a champagne on special occasions.

I am confident they will grow up having the same relationship with alcohol that I do.

[i-need-a-martini]

But I disagree with people who are anti alcohol but then suddenly allow their kids to drink at 16 as if it is a big milestone in their lives. That's just setting up the kids for disaster.

[freddie*rooster]

Agree.

Isn't Danielle Spencer thin? 😮

[**meep**]

thinking.......thinking..............

WROOOONG!!!!

[kimm8179]

wrong

[**meep**]

From what I saw, the ones who abused alcohol the most were the ones who were not allowed to drink.

Interesting.  A lot of parents believe exposing their children to alcohol will
curb drinking in adolescence while studies have shown that  early introduction to alcohol is a primary risk factor for problem drinking during adolescence.

[2106greencat]

I wouldn't encourage it, but in saying that I would prefer they drank with my knowledge and at home, rather than sneaking out to do it which is usually where the real trouble starts.

I also think it has an awful lot to do with the maturity of the child.

My daughter had her first drink at 15, (with me) has never drunk to excess, and my thought was that once she was old enough to visit a bar she would not be an 'easy' target so far as one drink and anything goes.

My son - 18, doesn't much like alcohol at all, so definitely all kid's are different as are parent's opinion on the subject.

[azureline**]

Wrong.... however we all need to curb the interest and the culture of finding drinking to excess funny/entertaining/ etc

We had serious issues with it when ours were teens, in that the usual entertainment/birthdays etc were overnighters, with some parents supplying alcohol to their teens as young as 14.

Fortunately ours knew that no way on earth would we supply it, nor approve of it.

Some parents gave out the alcohol with this:

"at least this way we know what she is drinking"

No, you don't, because once she has had those 6 bottles of alcohol she doesn't care what else she drinks, nor what she does and that is why she ended up in hospital.

[cherry*135]

Wrong - if it refers to the Aussie culture, and 16yo's would legally be able to drink alcohol anywhere and everywhere they go.