Drinking Responsibly
TigerHawk wrote a post about drinking in a responsible manner and… I completely agree with it. I’ve never understood why people who allow their children or their friends (minors) to drink in their company can be prosecuted in the US. Utterly ridiculous. The only way to learn to drink responsibly is… by someone teaching you and telling you how to do it.
As an aside, I find it awkward that the minimum drinking age in the US is 21 or so (as I understand it): people are allowed to drive cars when they’re 16, but they’re only allowed to buy beer when they’re 21.
So then, when they’re 21, they start experimenting with alcohol (because they haven’t been told how to drink at home, assuming that for many they’re not allowed to drink at home when they’re younger) while they have their driver’s license.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what happens next.
More at Jules’ place. Jules: my family didn’t sell alcohol, but I’m more than happy to drink it. How about you sending me some of the Crit ale to the Netherlands?
Michael, to be more realistic, a very large number of American youth, in fact I’d say a majority (ant the virtual totality of college students) start drinking before the legal age. Having a fake ID is the most normal thing in the world at age 18.
I find the 21 year drinking age very excessive, but I don’t think making the drinking age later than the driving age is a bad idea actually. No one should drive under the influence. but it will unfortunately happen, and I’d rather it happen to someone whose an experienced driver already, and not to a newbie.
I started taking (tiny) sips from my mothers beer at home (my parents would often have a beer or a glass of wine before dinner) around age 12. Barely a mouthful though, and I had my first actual drink at age 16 (which was the legal age in Spain, later bumped to 18) also in parental company. Drinking with your parents doesn’t encourage irresponsibility, what DOES is seeing your parents get very drunk very often.
I think it’s probably hard for a European to imagine the difference in the need to drive here, and how that factors into our problems with drinking and driving. Sure, it sounds more rational if we could have kids learn responsible drinking behavior for a few years before they get their drivers’ licenses, but the reason that it can’t happen that way is that kids need to be able to drive in order to start becoming independent and having jobs during their teen years. The idea then becomes an attempt to keep them from mixing drinking and driving, and thus the delay in allowing them to legally drink until 21. And the idea there too, would be that by the time they’re 21, they’re mature enough to not go crazy with it, that they’ll be more responsible (a dubious assumption, but still…it may be the best we can do under the circumstances.)
As far as 21 vs. 18, Claudia’s right about the fudge factor provided by fake IDs. When I came of age, the legal drinking age was 18, which meant that really we were drinking (not under parental supervision, but drinking at unchaperoned parties and sneaking into clubs) at age 15-16 (depending on whether you looked old enough to pass for 18, or had friends who did and could purchase the alcohol.) At least with the legal age at 21, it’s a bit more likely that the younger teens aren’t ‘passing’, because few of them will look like they’re 21 and few young adults of that age would be hanging out with young teens.
It’s a tough call, with no easy solution. I do agree about the supervised drinking, and we let our kids take small sips of wine (they’re not really interested in even tasting beer.) My husband’s parents used to host small parties for him and a few close friends, whose parents were all friends of theirs and agreeable to this, with the understanding that all the guys crashed at their house afterward after drinking the beer that they supplied. I think this is a great idea, but unfortunately today I’d never feel comfortable about whether the other parents totally agreed to it; I’ve heard of cases of people getting sued over this so we’d never take the chance. I think that’s too bad, because I think that’s the best way to allow kids to start learning to drink responsibly.