When I was younger, my parents stored alcohol in three places: spirits in a high kitchen cupboard, wine in a low kitchen cupboard, and beer in the fridge. No idea why (except Dad said cold beer was a good thing, so the fridge was the best place), but it was not an attempt to hide anything, or keep it out of reach. It was just where things went in our house.
Like Helen’s Eidolon, the legal age for me was 18. I was still living at home at 18, and it was made clear to me that since I was legal, I could have what I liked as long as I bought it myself. So I also kept my spirits in the high kitchen cupboard, and my beer in the fridge. No real problem with who owned what–I liked different brands than my parents did.
When I was a teenager my parents always made sure I knew exactly where their booze was. This was so I could have their rum & cokes ready for them when they got home from work. For some reason, stealing their booze simply never occurred to me. That might be partly because they’d usually offer me a drink whenever they had one.
Alcohol was stored in a cabinet, wine in a wine fridge and beer in the outside fridge. Other than a time or two in high school I never felt the desire to sneak a drink, all I had to do was ask and I could have a small amount.
In reference to the sweetened alcohols, other than the bottle of Bailey’s in the back of the fridge they were kept in the cabinet. My parents trusted my sister and I to leave it alone, or ask before pouring a drink. It was understood that friends would not drink at my house, if they did then my drinking privileges were revoked until age 21.
Once I was over 18 I could drink what I wanted as long as I didn’t drive afterwards.
This is what I’m trying to do with my kids. They’re ages 15 and 10 and still hating the taste.
When my brother and I were teenagers, we did steal booze from Grandma’s house and drink it in the woods. My family is made up mostly of teetotalers, and the only reason Grandma even had booze was that it had been my grandfather’s. (He died–unrelated to drinking). Grandma freaked out when she realized the levels of those bottles had gone down. Our father was an alcoholic and Grandma was of the opinion that someday we would be too. It would happen poof! between one sip and the next. So she made us pour it all down the sink as she lectured us on the evils of alcohol and we made off with only the couple of bottles we could stash in our clothes.
We were rebellious teenagers, but we went through our phase, and as adults, neither of us has a drinking problem.
Keep mostly wine, grappa, and cognac, but will occasionally have other stuff (need another Caribbean trip to restock). Kids don’t touch it - same with the beer. Daughter doesn’t like the taste of most stuff (though she does like her virgin frozen drinks).
It was all in the wet bar, no locks or anything. There was no mystery to it, though, so it just wasn’t attractive. When I was little my dad used to give me beer - all kids like beer, right? But when I got older I thought it tasted nasty. I wouldn’t lock it up for my kids. For their friends, though, you betcha.
Well said. I offer my boys a sip of my beer or wine now and then, and so far they’ve always declined. I don’t want it to be a mysterious, forbidden fruit that will get them curious in all the wrong ways down the road.
For me, it was hidden behind the Tupperware in the kitchen. Mostly due to my Dad drinking beer (He didn’t like the hard stuff!!!)
I never got into it, because to my little mind, alcohol meant the Special Export Lite crap Dad drank. I wouldn’t use that to put out a house fire…
Beer should NEVER be green!
Now, I keep the hard liquor in my office at home. It’s on a shelf, where I can see it from my desk. My kids know that if they want to try something, I’ll give them a sip.
But touch ANYTHING in Dad’s office without permission, and life as you know it will end. Ask my son, who found Daddy’s crossbow had fallen down from the top shelf… (No ammunition, and he’s far too small to cock it himself).
My parents kept theirs in a cupboard. I did get into it once when I was 11 or 12 and left alone for the evening. I took a big swig of tequila, as I recall, and was lucky not to spew it back over the rest of the bottles.
By the time I got old enough to want to drink, I had much less potentially disastrous methods than stealing it from my parents.
My children are grown up now – the youngest is 21 – but we never hid the booze. I don’t think any were interested in more than just little sips until they were legal (at age 18 in Australia).
I’ve been reading the board when I’m tired, the last few days, and my first reading of this thread title every time has been asking about where most people’s kids store their booze. :smack:
Of my high-school crew of us five good friends, four were from drinking families. (The fifth was the son of the Episcopal bishop; no booze at his house.) We stole booze from all our parents. We stole bottles of wine (the sweeter the better) and liquor. The hardest thievery was beer because our dads actually drank the beer regularly and so would notice if it was missing. Wine was less likely to be missed, but was more of a gamble because you had to take the whole bottle. Liquor was easiest because none of our folks were big “mixed drinks” drinkers; the liquor cabinet usually was only tapped for parties. Plus, if you took the clear stuff (poured into a separate container) you could just replace it with water.
I wasn’t a big drinker until my senior year of high school but man, we drank like fishes that year. And it was mostly stolen stuff until the spring when my boyfriend got a fake i.d.
My sister, the saint, never stole any booze as far as I know. My brother stole it stupidly – too much and too often for my parents not to notice. They locked the liquor cabinet on him, after I had gone to college.
My parents’ hard alcohol was in a locked cabinet with the key in the lock. Whenever Dad fancied a brandy he was as likely to ask me to bring him the bottle and sniffer as to get it himself.
Unopened wine in a wine rack; opened wine, in the fridge. Dad only had beer occasionally in the summer, and that in a bar.
We could try a sip of “whatever our parents were having” when they were having it and mostly, as kids, did not like it. By the time we developed a taste for anything with alcohol in it, we were considered old enough to do it (Spain didn’t have a legal drinking age, back then).
The family of one of my classmates owns a winery; pretty bad wine, most of it is the kind we call “fighter wine”. He was used to drinking wine-and-soda in every meal since he got weaned; wine without soda on big holidays. The rest of the class used to remark that “it must be true too much wine leaves you shrunk,” as the whole family wasn’t just small but had a wizened look to them.
We store our alcohol in the pantry and fridge, depending. Our 19 year old daughter was never a problem, and never did get into any of it.
She has discovered a taste for ‘good’ beer, as of late, but she always asks us if she can have a bottle or two before she ever touches it…and she doesn’t drink it very often.
We don’t have a problem with her drinking, but she knows that if she drinks, and is away from home, she needs to call me, and I will pick her up when she’s ready to leave.
Never had a problem with that deal, either!
I am keeping an eye on this thread. I have a kegerator and this thread has got me wondering what to do when we have children. It’s pretty easy to sneak some beers (although portability of draught beer can prove difficult) without us knowing. Even the 5gal barrels.
When my kids were smaller they weren’t interested, now they’re older (son, 19 and daughter, 17) they have wine with meals if they want it and we keep in lager/beer (Cobra - yukk!) for my son. I would be much more worried about what they are drinking when they are out.
We did clear out and lock up all the spirits when my daughter had her 16th bithday party. Dammed if I’ll pay for them to get smashed - they can buy their own booze
This follows the pattern of my childhood. There was never any mystery about alcohol, it was just something grown-ups drank. I always used to help serve drinks when my parents had parties etc. - there are not many of us who could mix a Pink Gin at the age of 10
