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Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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If you drank underage, do you regret it?
I did, and I don't.
I grew up in the time when the government claimed it was justified in sending far too many people for unwanted tours of SE Asia. As far as I'm concerned that gave every 18 year old American a perfect right to drink.
Most of us who drink did try it under age. Do I regret it? Absolutely no. In fact my dad actually started serving me drinks about 6 months before I left for college. He wanted to teach me to drink like a land and not over do it. Smart man, my dad. !!!!! He knew I was going to his alma mater and even then, when I left in 1955 it had a reputation as being a party school: still is from what we hear.
Most European countries had for years drinking age at 17-18 and I don't think they are any dumber that an average American kid. If you're old enough to go to the army and die for your country, you should be old enough to get a beer...
Convenient of you to leave out the part of my post that deals with this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian_M
I think that's a dumb "law". Should be up to the parents to monitor that and the current law only exists because "parents" don't. Take away the stigma, kids won't really care about it.
As for the other countries, parents that care to educate their kids, no stigma (it's not breaking the rules) and no binge-drinking. They have a completely different attitude towards the issue and it shows ~ the kids simply don't abuse alcohol to the same degree as it's done in the US.
As for the brain damage, the part of the brain that's damaged is the prefrontal cortex. It impacts impulse control/addictivness (setting the seed for lifelong addiction issues), attention focus and organization, complex planning, the ability to think through cause and effects (if I blow $1000 on a iPhone today, I don't think about my rent due tomorrow). It's not "dumb" in the way most people think, someone can be very knowledgeable about a topic, but it's kinda the difference between "book smart" and "street smart" (more rather "life smart"). You can see this in a simple way (lot of different links for this if you want to look them up):
There's been nearly no time in my life I've not have $1000 in cash to my name. I was homeless for a few months in the early 90's, but had the cash back within 1 years and ran into issues the summer of 2001 and had to borrow money, but again was back to over $1k within a year. It's dead simple to do, even on minimum wage, if you have impulse control and the ability to plan ahead.
I did and I do regret it. Raised by abusive anchoring I soon fell into drinking around the clock by 9th grade. My friends all drank too much too. The majority on this thread must have had different friends and home. Good for them.
I did and I do regret it. Raised by abusive anchoring I soon fell into drinking around the clock by 9th grade. My friends all drank too much too. The majority on this thread must have had different friends and home. Good for them.
I think your situation is a bit different than some of ours: you drank partly because of a home life problem some of us tried booze just to fit in or it was the accepted thing. it had little to do with our home life. At least the kids I knew that drank mostly came from stable homes.
My family gave sips and nips to us teenage kids and took the mystery out of drinking most of us didn’t like it at all so when the time came in high school for peer pressure most of us said no we didn’t feel the need to act out or rebel using alcohol
I did the same with my son I let him sip adult beverages
At family gatherings it took the mystery right out of it so he had no peer pressure or feel a need to get drunk
The absolute worst phone call to get as a parent is a state trooper calling to say your kid has been in an accident even if he wasn’t driving
This is why you are seeing more parents letting their teenage kids drink in the basement as long as they are not driving
My family gave sips and nips to us teenage kids and took the mystery out of drinking most of us didn’t like it at all so when the time came in high school for peer pressure most of us said no we didn’t feel the need to act out or rebel using alcohol
I did the same with my son I let him sip adult beverages
At family gatherings it took the mystery right out of it so he had no peer pressure or feel a need to get drunk
The absolute worst phone call to get as a parent is a state trooper calling to say your kid has been in an accident even if he wasn’t driving
This is why you are seeing more parents letting their teenage kids drink in the basement as long as they are not driving
Totally agree. I think what your parents did and mine as well is the best way to handle the desire to drink for teens. As I have said, do I regret drinking under age? Nope but I rarely did. The spring break or Easter break as it used to be called of my senior year in high school we went to the beach for the week and yes, we met some college guys and had beer. That was the first time I can remember having alcohol other than at home until I left for college.
Location: Danbury CT covering all of Fairfield County
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I had my 1st real drink when I was 15 on vacation. An older kid bought it for me, a gin & tonic. I didn't drink at all in HS, other than a few drinks at a graduation party at a friends house 10 minutes away. I felt unprepared when I got to college for those events..
Nah, my parents gave me a sip of beer when I was a little kid. A couple of tastes killed the curiousity before it could kill this cat. It held no fascination for me.
No regrets whatsoever. It is just another consumable that I wouldn’t miss if it disappeared.
Guess what, I hated beer when my dad allowed me to have a sip of his at age, I don't know, 7 or something. Same thing with coffee--loved the smell as a kid, so was even more curious about that, but when I was allowed to try it, I hated the taste. Fast forward to age 18 and I was, um, a huge fan of both. How you could remain uncurious about alcohol throughout your entire life based upon some minor experience as a...minor is beyond me. Plus, there's craft beer now!
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He knew I was going to his alma mater and even then, when I left in 1955 it had a reputation as being a party school: still is from what we hear.
