Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When I was teething my mom put whiskey on my gums to numb the pain.
When I was around 3, mom would let me have a *sip* of her drink when my parents had cocktail parties at the house. Unbeknownst to her, so did my aunt, and at least one of the other guests. Within an hour, I'd had maybe 4 sips of mixed drinks. That was enough for any 3-year-old to be moderately tipsy, and I guess that was pretty entertaining to the guests. They learned after the first couple of times not to let me have sips anymore, because they wouldn't have any way of knowing who -else- had given me a sip.
Beyond that, we grew up drinking wine on Friday nights; it's part of our religion and we usually went to Synagogue where we'd all do a blessing over the "fruit of the vine" and drink a dixie cup around 1/4 full of Manischewitz Concord Grape. When I became a teenager that shifted to mom trying to "culturalize" us by exposing us to different types of wine. I never learned to like dry wine. I still prefer the sweet "kool-aid" type wines like Manischewitz and sangria and certain brands of port.
If you have to ask when your child is "old enough" to "let them" try alcohol, then you're doing it wrong. You either bring them up with the understanding that it's part and parcel of their culture to experience it, or you don't.
Mine had no desire either at 17 or 18...then he went to college......
Well yeah, but should I force her now? LOL. It doesn't appeal to her. She has never had a drink...and not in the same way that I never had a drink at her age.
It's right to do when it's legal to do. One should not encourage his children to break a law simply because he disagrees with it (unless said law is immoral). I think 21 is a ridiculous drinking age seeing as one is an adult at 18, but it's the law.
Our parents never even offered us alcohol until we were 21, and it was never seen as the forbidden fruit. We saw adults drinking it responsibly and learned from them. Out of my sisters and cousins, only one has an alcohol problem (it's not from not being allowed to drink at a younger age).
Yes, I went to college. Yes, I went to parties and clubs. Yes, I managed to have fun without drinking before I was 21. The difference was that I actually remembered the fun the next day.
I started drinking around 14 at high school age. Did it behind my parents back. Thankfully my mom and dad had logic and knew kids do things behind their parents backs. They made it clear to me that drinking and driving was not acceptable and told me to call them if I was ever in trouble. On vacations and holidays I was allowed to drink with my parents. I turned out pretty fine. On the other hand I knew people whose parents would kill them if they drank and then when they went to college they became total drunks.
It's interesting that in this entire thread so far I don't believe I've seen anyone reacting with horror to the idea in general. I believe the statistics show that roughly 15% of those who ever drink will have their lives strongly negatively impacted by alcoholism, and a significant number will die at very young ages (under 30) from behaviors connected to alcohol abuse. Additionally, the addictive component of alcohol use seems to be almost unrecognized in the comments here so far: very few drinkers ever manage or even make a serious attempt to give up drinking in their lives: their behavior in that regard is very similar to that of smokers of fifty years ago. And the addiction itself is one of the few that can actually cause physical death from seizures and such if attempted "cold turkey."
What if the question here had been "When is it right to give your son or daughter their first cigarette?" Imagine the difference in the sort of responses the thread would bring. Would the question even stand as an accepted discussion item here? And yet very few lose their lives from smoking before age 30 (or even age 50), and I don't believe there's *ever* been a death from going "cold turkey" from the smokes, despite statistics showing that about half of all smokers give it up for good during their lives.
I realize my response might be more appropriate to a question of "*IS* it right to ever give your son or daughter their first alcoholic beverage?" Should that perhaps be posed as an independent question?
As to my specific answer: I believe the mid-teens is appropriate for supervised introduction to either alcohol or tobacco. The legal ages for both substances has often been 16 or so and I believe that is generally reasonable since most people that age who want to use them will be doing so regardless of the legality and supervised open use is likely to be better than clandestine illegal use from iffy sources and in iffy surroundings.
Marijuana is a somewhat different story: I think it has more value as a drug if a person holds off until their 20s: one of the major positive effects I noted about it when I smoked it briefly in my 20s and 30s was that it helps one see the importance of one's perceptual filters in processing information -- either intellectual or sensory. Coming to an understanding that what we *think* we know to be true and what we *think* we see in a certain way may not actually fully reflect an objective reality. If pot is smoked at an earlier age I think that lesson is lost and the developing mind may simply accept "The World As Seen Through Pot Smoke" as being just as valid as "The Straight World View." Heh, maybe some believe it is, but I'd have my doubts -- although I'm sure elements of it might be more valid on their own.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
