# Parents Giving their Kids Alcohol In the US **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** wine\ **Created:** [September 16, 2024, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-giving-their-kids-alcohol-in-the-us/1007356 "2024-09-16T17:15:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-giving-their-kids-alcohol-in-the-us/1007356/41 "2024-09-26T04:11:40Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > I turned 18 in Grade 13 and I’d skipped a grade. Not sure what the criteria was for entering school, but as I understand kids are still 18 before grade 12 is done now. Drinking age then was 18. It was a standing joke that in the final year sometimes students would hit the bar on the way home - yearbook comment “does magic tricks - walks down the street and turns into a bar.” Joke or not, it happened. When I was in Grade 13, I well remember, after a hard day of high school, heading off to the corner pub with my buddies. Occasionally, our history teacher would head there as well. He usually bought a round for all of us. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-giving-their-kids-alcohol-in-the-us/1007356/42 "2024-09-26T04:49:10Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Joke or not, it happened. When I was in Grade 13, I well remember, after a hard day of high school, heading off to the corner pub with my buddies. Occasionally, our history teacher would head there as well. He usually bought a round for all of us. And yet, I go to my high school reunion and almost everyone had a long and productive career… so no harm in hitting the bar. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-giving-their-kids-alcohol-in-the-us/1007356/43 "2024-09-26T08:02:25Z")
Heh. I went to my high school class’s 40th reunion. No worries with the bar there; it was well-patronized. Surprised at how many professionals and entrepreneurs our class turned out, in spite of being able to drink in the last year of high school. I suppose we became adults because in those days, as 18-year-olds, we were treated as adults. We could come late to school with no consequences, and we could sign our own report cards. We could drink, we could smoke, we could gamble, we could enter into contracts, we could sign up for the Armed Forces, all at age 18 (though it was 16 for smoking); and all without parental permission. The US age of 21 baffles me. Here in Alberta, the age is 18, and nobody goes crazy about being of legal age. Much like we were, really. Alberta 18-year-olds don’t have to hide “pre-gaming” at age 20, they just buy the stuff legally and drink it. Or they go to the bar or sports event, where they can buy it. They’re adults, old enough to do so. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-giving-their-kids-alcohol-in-the-us/1007356/44 "2024-09-26T18:49:34Z")
I remember talking to an old guy from Switzerland. Among other things (mentioning the swarms of airplanes flying over, then the news that this city or that had been destroyed, during WWII) he mentioned that nobody in Europe made a big deal out of drinking. He also said the European attitude (expcet maybe Britain) was that a drunk was someone pathetic to be pitied. They did not find being intoxicated hilarious, while North America seems to have a tradition - think WC Fields, or Animal House, or most frat movies - that a person who is drunk is funny and the life of the party. Instead, he said that Europeans think of it as pathetic, much similar to someone losing control and wetting their pants. I presume this attitude carries over to some European immigrants - their kids don’t think of drinking as something to hide from their parents, and don’t think of drunken antics as particularly celebratory. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-giving-their-kids-alcohol-in-the-us/1007356.md?page=2)