Young'ns and beer

[Trainwreck20]

Many, many years ago, HBO filmed a documentary called 'growing up stoned in America' and Georgetown was featured as the typical medium sized HS. I think it was ~1500 students at the time. Never did see it (we didnt have cable back in the early 80s), but apparently there were lots of students drinking and smoking, with a few smoking pot. On the other hand, I drank almost nothing in HS and didn't feel I missed out on much. A lot of kids drink, but a lot don't.

[ramones85]

I forgot to offer that when I was a young teen, my older sister gave me some important advice. She acknowledged that I was already drinking, and decided to help ensure I was safe. My "lessons" included things I'm glad I knew...

- Never allowing ANYONE (even best guy friends) to get me a beer from the keg, and never pick a drink back up after you've set it down.
- Always go home with the friends you came with, and make sure they all come home with you.
- Take one shot (or drink one beer, glass of wine, whatever) and then drink a glass of water after each one. While drinking the water, do a lap around the room to make sure you can still stand and walk. Kids have a tendency to sit and drink a lot, and then find out how much they've drunk once they stand.
- Don't drink and smoke weed at the same time. (I was never a pot smoker, so I'm not sure what the significance of that one is).
- Always call for a ride home if yours bails. I guess this seems obvious, but it's easier to trust strangers at a party who offer you a ride home and are a friend of a friend once you've had a few.

I haven't always followed her rules to a T, but it definitely helped to have someone to tell me things like that rather than pretend I wasn't drinking and end up learning them the hard way.

[AGA]

Westwood HS was named one of the 10 best HS in the country this year. Not that that is really relevant, but thought it interesting to hear it called Wastewood

[another_hot-day]

From the time I was 12 years old I was going to keggers and much worse.
I had no supervision whatsoever though.

[twange]

Originally Posted by ramones85

I forgot to offer that when I was a young teen, my older sister gave me some important advice. She acknowledged that I was already drinking, and decided to help ensure I was safe. My "lessons" included things I'm glad I knew...

- Never allowing ANYONE (even best guy friends) to get me a beer from the keg, and never pick a drink back up after you've set it down.
- Always go home with the friends you came with, and make sure they all come home with you.
- Take one shot (or drink one beer, glass of wine, whatever) and then drink a glass of water after each one. While drinking the water, do a lap around the room to make sure you can still stand and walk. Kids have a tendency to sit and drink a lot, and then find out how much they've drunk once they stand.
- Don't drink and smoke weed at the same time. (I was never a pot smoker, so I'm not sure what the significance of that one is).
- Always call for a ride home if yours bails. I guess this seems obvious, but it's easier to trust strangers at a party who offer you a ride home and are a friend of a friend once you've had a few.

I haven't always followed her rules to a T, but it definitely helped to have someone to tell me things like that rather than pretend I wasn't drinking and end up learning them the hard way.

I think that's very good advice, especially for young women. If I had a daughter, I would get her started on martial arts early

While parents can't control everything their kids do, I think the way that they approach them about drinking, partying, sex etc...has a direct affect on whether their children take what they say to heart and are honest and trustworthy.

I was no saint growing up, but my parents trusted me until I gave them a reason no to. Then there were consequences. I think what is most important is clear, honest and non-patronizing communication with young people. My folks were pretty straight up with me about sex, drugs and alcohol and instilled in me a strong sense of self-respect. I always had solid info, so there was no real mystique about any of that stuff. That doesn't mean I wasn't a jack-ass now and then...what teen-ager isn't? The people I knew that were really abusive were usually missing something at home. Every situation is different though.

While I generally think that current pop culture is way more accepting and encouraging of hedonistic, debaucherous and "skanky" behavior, it was always there, lurking behind every high school locker or college dorm. I think the difference is that now, that sort of behavior is often rewarded and commercialized(Gilrs Gone Wild). Look at how irreverent young people are towards pornography? It's not even remotely underground anymore. This is not a value judgment but a fact. I'm certainly not a prude, but that kind of trash suggests a real fundamental deficit in self respect. And when it comes to celebrities, there's a real blur between sex "appeal" and promiscuity.

Think about this for a moment: A generation of people have grown up seeing some very real, shocking, scary things presented to them daily(911, climate change, abstract wars), not to mention the high rate of divorce, the ubiquitous scandals concerning our "leaders", and of course the continuous "fallen star" dramas played out daily on tv and youtube. Is it any wonder that young people are more cynical, abusive and irreverent? Information(good and bad) is also so easy to get, as parent it seems that it would be nearly impossible to manage what your kids are exposed to.

But in defense of younger people, I would say that many of them are even better at getting good, solid information. Many of them aren't afraid to talk openly about awkward topics like racism, sexuality, religion and politics. That's a good thing. When I was teaching, I really enjoyed those kind of discussions. Many of their observations were thoughtful and seemed to reflect a step further along the evolutionary path in terms of information.

So things aren't all bad

[pilotskid27]

Originally Posted by orionid

Hey everybody --

I went on MySpace (AAAUUUGHHHH!!) and did a search on some of the local high schools in the W-NW outskirts (Lake Travis, Westlake, Cedar Park). I found a lot of kids from these schools on there, and the pictures & videos made me think that they do nothing except drink and party.

As a parent of two boys, both on the cusp of teenage-dom, I'm concerned.

1) Is underage drinking and partying a big problem in Austin? Is drinking a big part of the youth culture?
2) If so, why? Isn't there enough to do to keep the kids busy or interested in other things?
3) Is there a big problem with drinking and driving (cars or boats)?
4) What do teenage kids there do for fun besides drink and party?

Thanks!!

I can definitely understand your concern, we all want to keep our children safe and the type of dangers that seem to be lurking in the corners seems to get worse every year.

I would humbly suggest you take a step back and consider the source of what you were viewing: MY SPACE. The whole point of My Space is to put something out there that gets noticed and talked about. Photos of a well behaved study hall, or a blog entry expressing the quiet pride a kid took in writing the best paper of his academic career will not be posted there. That doesn't mean these things don't exist, they just don't get posted or blogged about on My Space.

My teenage neice is a quiet, sweet girl who spends weekends making scrapbook pages with her best girlfriends, and is an amazingly patient sister to her special-needs younger sibling. I found her My Space page a couple of weeks ago and was shocked!! Her photo shows her in dark glasses, posing in some kind of too-cool-for-anyone dance move, she blogs quotes from rap music lyrics and sounds very edgy, rough, and the last person I would hire as a sitter for my 7 year old. It made me realize what is put out on My Space is just "window dressing"....kids are posting that stuff to be percieved as "cool", and what they post bears little relation to the reality of their lives.

So, does underage drinking and partying exist in Austin? You bet. Just like it did when we were kids.

Are the "good kids" involved. Probably. Sometimes.

I would submit that the photos of head cheerleader getting drunk at a party are "worth" more in buzz factor and are more likely to get posted on My Space than photos of average kids. And, the truth could be that it was the first time this virtuous woman ever took a drink and she is now completely mortified that those photos are out there. The fact that she could be an honor student who sings solos in the church choir is now eclipsed by this one lapse in judgement memorialized on the web.

My point is that what appears on My Space is not the most accurate reflection of what teenage life is in Austin, or anywhere for that matter.

Is there other stuff to keep kids busy in Austin? Yes ! In fact, it appears to be the opposite problem--kids have too much to do, and too many interesting choices. Many are over-scheduled, and their mothers over-taxed with the never-ending chauffering duties.

If I were in your shoes, I would survey my kid's interests, and find activites for each that match. That way, they will find friends with common interests which will help them ease into life in a new area. Eventually, they will settle into new social groups and it will feel like home to everyone.

[mimimomx3]

This may be slightly off topic, but Austin really is a 'party town', and the Texas culture in general is traditionally one of drinking...beer, margaritas etc. It was actually legal up to a few years ago to drive with an open beer in the car. Teenage drinking has been going on forever in Texas and probably always will. Remember, Texas has a 'frontier mentality' and fierce independence streak....

[Tarrytown]

article on a local high school kegger a couple of days ago, at austin high partying is a tradition, our old fight song even advertizes it.

Newsroom

Hundreds of Austin High School juniors and seniors are busted in Fayette County today, where they were hosting their annual "hoedown" to mark the end of the fall semester. This man's son was at the over-night kegger and says county sheriff's are holding the kids at the party site to try and sort things out. A lieutenant with the Fayette County Sheriff's Department says a local landowner called about the party this morning. He says his officers are still out on the land where the party was hosted and it's not yet been determined if all the minors will be cited for possessing alcohol or if just the owners of the land will be held responsible.

"beer beer for old austin high, bring out the whiskey, bring out the rye, send those freshmen out for gin and don't let a sober senior in!

we never stagger, we never fall, we sober up on wood alcohol, all ye saints of austin high, we're out on the drunk again!"