Drinking Education

[Jenny A]

I don't think that your study is relevant to 18 year old kids heading out to college where alcohol is easily available.

I disagree, and the drinking age here is 18 - and I support raising it to 20 or 21.

I gather you disagree about parents ever allow kids to drink at home, but your article really doesn't address drinking begun at 18. And I do know you mean very well.

But, regardless of the drinking age, which without the presence and permission of parents is 21 all over the U.S., college kids do have access to alcohol and mostly at parties. The question is how best to prepare her for that. I can't police it. That's the thing about kids growing up, they get to make their own choices. In fact they tend to make their own choices long before that. I can only set an example and provide an education.

So far, her choices appear to have been good ones.

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I've got mixed feelings about this issue, which I'll be confronting in a year myself -- but I lean towards familiarizing your daughter with the effects of alcohol. Not only can that help her avoid drunkeness itself, but it is a major line of defense against sexual assault. While you're doing that, teach her to stick to drinks she's watched being made, and to never take a drink from a stranger outside of a restaurant server.

I have no doubt you've inoculated her against peer pressure, but it couldn't hurt to reinforce that a bit, too.

Obviously, I have mixed feelings too, or I wouldn't bother to ask for advice. And watching the drinks made is good advice. I really hope she doesn't ever drink where there may be a restaurant server until she is twenty-one, though she could probably pass as 25 given the right dress, makeup and companions. I could at her age. I had the embarrassing experience of being considered my father's date, on more than one occasion.

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I have nine years to go before dealing with that. Let me know how it goes. And good luck!

I'd say I'd let you know, but absent really large problems, I may not know myself. That's the thing about sending kids out into the world. They're legally grownup, and they're a long ways away.

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As long as they don't have an issue with it then they will be fine and could benefit from the experience. I have no idea. My dad condoned to my drinking before I was 18, but it had to be with him...ended up with a love/hate relationship with booze. Everyone is different.

Do you think your love/hate relationship would be any different if your dad hadn't let you drink with him? And did you drink without him anyway?