The recent Stanford rape case has brought up the painful reality that way to many young people go away to college and for the first time in their lives, get totally hammered.
Here is a radical thought. Let the kid get drunk at home in a safe environment so they 1. learn their limit, b. know the feeling and c. understand the consequences.
Yeah, its radical. But its better to learn at home rather than after waking up in a hospital room.
I dunno about “getting drunk”, but I do think it’s a good idea for parents to introduce their kids to beer and wine before they leave the house (whether for college or industry) to demystify it and explain the dangers and how to avoid/get over a hangover.
But then, I have the radical idea that the drinking age should move back to 18, so take that for what you will.
I don’t think that either player in the Stanford case was drinking for the first time. If he didn’t know you shouldn’t have sex with a woman who is unconscious who you don’t know, pounding some Jack Daniels on your kitchen table the week before isn’t going to help.
Hey, I’m all for a more European model of drinking, but I think the problem is better addressed by teaching our sons not to force themselves on women, and that a passed out woman can’t give consent.
Good point!
I’m not sure the “European model of drinking” involves getting kids drunk so they can find out what their limits are.
No, I am NOT going to give my kids alcohol.
Rather I teach them how to have fun without alcohol. How to deal with problems and stress without alcohol - something they will use all their lives.
Also I teach them they do not have to play “high school gang - follow the leader”. That they can make their own choices and if other people don’t like it (that they are not following along), then TOO BAD!
Of which European model do you speak? The one in this corner of Europe is “go to the town centre, drink as many two-for-one beers as you can, throw up, pick a fight”.
This is not hyperbole.
Getting drunk for the first time in a safe environment might be a good idea. You can’t predict how you will personally be affected by excessive drinking. Are you the type who gets sleepy and passes out? Or do you get wild and crazy and don’t remember anything the next day? Will you be able to recognize that point when you’re approaching the point of no return and get in a safe place? The time delay between when you drink and when the full effect hits you means newbie drinkers may down several drinks without realizing they are going to be slammed in 20 minutes and it’s too late to do anything to stop it.
I think they’re referring to the French model, in which 9-year-olds regularly polish off their meals with a glass of Bordeaux, an unfiltered Gauloises and a spirited discussion on Sartre.
Should we teach our kids how to get drunk?
No, we should teach them how NOT to get drunk – how to drink responsibly, how to enjoy alcohol with a meal, how to enjoy the taste of drinks rather than simply using them as ethanol delivery systems, etc.
I think kids get enough lessons at home from parents about the hazards of getting drunk, and there are certainly a crapload of parents out there unqualified to teach anybody how to drink “safely”.
Sorry, didn’t mean to imply that it was. But the French model, at least, is a lot more lenient when it comes to introducing minors to alcohol. Not to get them drunk, of course, but to teach them to drink responsibly.
When my kids were 16 - 20 I would occasionally offer them wine with dinner or some of my beer, mostly as a teaching thing (this Merlot is very dry and has heavy tannins, this beer is hoppy).
They do not like getting drunk, indeed my daughter (now 25) rarely drinks and my son (21) only has an occasional beer. They have both over-imbibed at wedding receptions, got sick, and swore off that kind of drinking.
Very different from their old man.
Hey, I like this idea, too! Nifty!
Teach a kid to drink and you’ve taught him/her to be an alcoholic.
Teach a kid to MAKE drinks, and you can relax for the rest of the evening.
My kids are welcome to have a drink with me at home anytime they’d like. The idea is to take away the mystery or allure of the unknown. Right now apparently all alcoholic drinks smell disgusting and it’s shocking why anyone would want to drink that. We’ll see when they are teenagers.
Wait-how old are they now?
I think many/most of us have an experience like that. Luckily for the vast majority the consequences don’t go beyond embarrassment and a bad hang over. I don’t think teaching people their limit is something that would work. It’s something that they need to learn for themselves. What needs to be taught is strategies for this to happen in a place where the consequences aren’t being raped behind a dumpster.
Mines 12…I do the same thing and she has the same reaction.