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Teenage drinking

#41
Nick man said:
Ive noticed its usually those people whose parents were very strict and kept them away from the stuff are generally the ones who go crazy with it first chance they get.
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My dad has loads of advice for me as I raise my kids. A couple years ago, he told me a great illustration. Think of your kids as a spring you have compressed down in your hand. If you hold that spring tight in your hand, eventually your hand will get tired and let go. That spring is going to shoot out of your hand and fly off in unknown directions. OTOH, if you slowly release pressure on the spring over time, it will expand to it's full length and not lose control.

I am trying that with my children.

-Mike
 
#42
MJ5150 said:
My dad has loads of advice for me as I raise my kids. A couple years ago, he told me a great illustration. Think of your kids as a spring you have compressed down in your hand. If you hold that spring tight in your hand, eventually your hand will get tired and let go. That spring is going to shoot out of your hand and fly off in unknown directions. OTOH, if you slowly release pressure on the spring over time, it will expand to it's full length and not lose control.

I am trying that with my children.

-Mike
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Sounds like great advice for a parent.

From experience with peers (no, Im not a parent.) Ive noticed that parents that are most open with their kids about drinking, drugs, sex, and how they were with it at their age, end up with the most level headed kids.

If you educate your kids and are honest with them (they can tell when their parents are lying just as easily as their parents can tell if they are) about drinking, and other things they will take your advice. Tell them about when you and your friends got plastered and the time that guy ended up in the hospital from alcohol poisoning. They might experiment, but they usually take their parents advice to heart and are at least sensible about it. If they drink a bit around their parents at family gatherings then they usually already know what they can handle.

If you tell them "NO!" and tell them its bad and will make you a wife beating alcoholic, they arent going to take you serious and they'll either disobey you, or obey you untill you are out of the picture then get completely wasted and sick on a regular basis. They hit the wall harder IME.

Of course, this is what Ive experienced as the norm from people Ive been around. There are exceptions. Im one. My parents didnt even talk to me about much if anything and I did a little experimenting with drinking and Ive been ok minus two nights where I threw up.

Peace
Nick
 
#43
gdoi moit,

Well because i drink and occasionally smoke a bit of pot... i guess im a drug monkey thats hear to drag you all down :D

I'm 17 and my parents hav permitted me to drink since i was bout 14. when i was a baby i would sip my old mans beer and stuff. I drink/smoke because i enjoy it. It makes everything fun or funny. And laughter is the best medicine. But one thing that annoys me is the people who are all i got so drunk i am so harcore. Who cares... i don't brag or carry on about it. Every drinks, most people have smoked pot at sometime, its just a part of life, get over it all you whingers of alcohol and pot. It your decision to do what ya want

ramble ramble ramble

Rock Out,
Chips :bassist:
 
#44
I'm 19. I had my first drink at about 14 or so, you know starting on the usual cider or cheap beer. But I was never seriously drunk until I was 16, and that was at some party, and boy did I have a good time. Would I have had a good time had everyone been sober? No. Everyone would have been too shy to speak to other people there, and to chat up the females ;). Of course you would always have the school kids who like many kids, would come in on a Monday morning, going "I got so drunk on Saturday night, I was off my face, but then I puked everywhere, but it was totally worth it." :rolleyes:

I can probably say I have been really drunk about....10-15 times and I'd say about 5-7 I've puked up. But I've been happily "merry" a lot of times.

All the above is going to make me sound like a p!5$head, but I also like to drink for pleasure, not to get hella drunk. There's nothing like a nice couple of cold beers after a show, or relaxing watching the football game with a nice cold pint.

I'm saying everyone here with the expection of Vanilla Coke, has made some good valid points. You don't need to drink to make the night fun, but for some people like myself, it helps to relax me and allows me to talk to people I've never met before.
 
#45
I have never seen anything cool about getting so blind steaming drunk that you don't remember the night before or how you got home. That being said, I have been there on occasion.... But I still don't think it's cool!

I'm a great believer in 'everything in moderation' - in fact some studies show that people who drink within the 'healthy guidelines' ie so many units of alcohol per week, are on average healthier than those who don't!

Problems with drink are very commonplace, and many people get addicted quite easily - it is also readily available! When I was at school, we had people come to talk to us from the local Alcoholics Anonymous. The bulk of their stories of themselves and their other group members were of very strict upbringing without drink being involved. When they reached 21 - which was for a while the legal age in the UK they had their first drinks - and liked it.

I personally think it's best to gradually expose children to alcohol, so that they can appreciate it for what it is....and the dangers! My son is 5, and I occassionally give him a weak shandy (a small one - mostly Sprite, but some lager!). As long as while underage he drinks with me, where I can see what he's having I'll be fine with it (my parents were like that with me). Can't comment on smoking and drugs though....... I don't smoke (although I did when I was 17), and I've never done drugs.

Oh, and for the record, the drinks I drink I drink because I enjoy them, taste wise.....alcohol content isn't something I'm big on!
 
#46
DeepDeath said:
I find the drinking age in America very stupid. Germans and most Europeans can drink when there 16. They have celebrations that include mass amount of alcohol(Oktoberfest/St. Patricks Day/etc.). These events and laws seem totally normal and right to me, and i'm an American! I need to move to Europe, this place gives me a headache with all its stupid laws to get intoxicated. It's my body, no one should be able to control or set a law to deny what I can do to it. The By-Product of the puritanical madness agaisn't drinking and drugs, is that people do abuse it and "rebel". With that rebellion there is drunk driving(because public intoxication is illegal so no one wants to walk). It would just be better if there were no laws agaisn't any intoxication, with that comes education and responsibility-but a liberal society to no forshame these people. Some people ask me why such a smart person like me gets intoxicated(They think i'm smart, I am not egoing myself). I tell them my quote "Intellictuals who escape from reality, are not to be judged. The true injustice is that reality has escaped from being intellictual." Learn, Grow, Live- People....
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Drunk driving is not rebelion, it's stupidity from imparment of judgement. Half the time when your drunk you don't think you are period or still insist on driving. Lowering the drinking age WILL NOT stop drunk driving, if anything MORE drunk drivers will be on the road because many states have the teens recieve thier licenses at age 16 or 17. You know what, there should be limits on the drinking age. It may be YOUR body but who the hell is going to stop you or some one else from killing innoccent people if you drive drunk ? What about that pregnant mother-to-be and her 3 year old child you could hit ? What if you hit some woman o man comming home from work ?What the hell about them ?
 
#47
Rather than writing a massive response, I’d just like to express my disgust at the view that underage drinking = bad parenting. Underage drinking has so many forms that you can’t just make such a sweeping generalization. Back when I was a little kid, my dad would always let me sip out of his beer when he cooked on the BBQ. When I hit the teens, my parents gave me enough rope so that I could learn what alcohol was. They allowed me to drink as long as I did so responsibly, they were able to monitor how much was consumed by me and that I wasn’t doing anything stupid to myself. I hear time and time again of people from high school who have become alcoholic when they hit 18. In all cases it was correlated with their parents not allowing them to drink at all. When they were legal, they got hammered and are literally now addicts. Now they have to deal addiction at age 18.

The fact is personality is the main factor here. Some people shouldn’t ever drink, some will never want to while others will find it enjoyable, to at least some extent and can do so responsibly. Before your child hits legal age, you and they should be aware of which one of those they are. I also believe that not allowing your children to drink under the afore mentioned conditions limits their growth morally and emotionally. Your child has to grow up and make bigger decisions in their life than just whether to drink or not a party, so why not give them enough so that they can make a decision but not fall flat on their face if they make the wrong one?

I’m going to do exactly what my parents did with me because I believe that despite being a person who is easily addicted, my morals, values and control over drinking habits are directly related to their trust in me.

[k]
 
#48
Mr.QuakQuak said:
Drunk driving is not rebelion, it's stupidity from imparment of judgement. Half the time when your drunk you don't think you are period or still insist on driving. Lowering the drinking age WILL NOT stop drunk driving, if anything MORE drunk drivers will be on the road because many states have the teens recieve thier licenses at age 16 or 17. You know what, there should be limits on the drinking age. It may be YOUR body but who the hell is going to stop you or some one else from killing innoccent people if you drive drunk ? What about that pregnant mother-to-be and her 3 year old child you could hit ? What if you hit some woman o man comming home from work ?What the hell about them ?
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I agree that there needs to be a drinking age, but I don't agree with justifying it in respect to drunk driving. More people die due to accidents caused by tired drivers than drunk drivers. Its the emotional, social and psychological problems with alcohol that are far worse, IMHO. Those problems are certainly not specific to the drinker, either.

Is the law in the US the same as over here in that if you are underage, your parents are allowed to serve you liquor under their supervision?

[k]
 
#49
Nick man said:
I first drank when I was 14 or 15 but not much, I didnt actually get drunk till I was 16, and I didnt go out drinking on a regular bassis till I was 17-18.
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i was the same way, i first had some alcohol while sanding in line for a concert(vodka and coke) when i was 15, it wasn't untill i was 17 and in my last year of highschool that i started getting drunk on a regular basis. but for the most part it was socailible stuff, like we'd all drink for awhile and then watch a movie, well they would and i'd either be passed out or stumbling around looking for something to do. now i've grown out of that alittle and i have decided to quit drinking untill i'm done this year of college. but out at college theres alot of people who drink cause its "cool" and then go braging about how much they had, its just like highschool except everytone is older, thinks they're better then thoses in highschool(in many cases they are just as stupid).
 
#50
The official age for buying beer and entering a bar is 18 here, 20 for buying hard liquor, and it's somewhat enforced, eg. if the police catches you drinking something they'll pour your booze on the ground and give you a small fine.

That being said, I started my first experiments with booze at the tender age of sixteen, which I would consider being 'somewhat mature' age; before that, at junior high, it's bit too young.

Also I believe firmly in the principle that if you let the kids experiment with the stuff at well-judged age and guide them in right direction, they'll learn to use alcohol properly, as in sipping couple beers beers in good company, and not getting wasted on home-made orange juice dirt behind the corner.
 
#51
Eric Cioe said:
I know it doesn't affect me directly, but when this becomes the social norm- and more, the social ideal- I am worried.
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Oh, but it does affect you. Just wait until just one of your friends dies in a drunken car crash. Then it will affect you.

Personally, I see tons of this at school also. I just brush it off. I'm more anti-social at school so I won't be affected if someone dies. To me, it's called natural selection. But to you, it could be your best friend. Try to make them stop drinking even though you don't.
 
#54
Here the legal drinking age is 18, i drank from when i was about 14, going out being a typical teenager, my parents found out, and didnt mind, i dont think they have 'failed as parents', but some people might, i respect their point of view, i just see it from a differant angle.

Im 17 now, and i havnt been drunk in a good few months now, thats probobly because im busy doing other things which i cant mention on this site because of the rules, i had a can of bud the other night, and i didnt even enjoy it, when i was younger, i did drink to let myself go, but thats not something i want to do anymore, the fun has gone from drinking, however, after a few months i might enjoy the feeling of being drunk again, who knows....
 
#55
Personally, moderation is key. I drink wine with my grandparents and occasionally with my parents (Italian family, my grandpa makes huge kegs every year) at supper time, which is about 2 or 3 times a week, and I like it. I don't get drunk off of it. Drinking is like anything else, as long as you keep it reasonable there's no problem. I don't see what's wrong with having a bit of alcohol. I just don't see the point in getting piss drunk. At that point, it becomes a way of escaping reality, like drugs, which I don't agree with. People who are constantly drunk seem to lose touch with reality and that's just not cool. The reason that the government places laws on teen drinking is because more often than not, teens don't understand the consequences of drinking. I know people who drink to get drunk and waste their time doing it. It's one thing to drink to loosen up or whatever, but I don't agree with purposely getting wasted.
 
#56
Osama_Spears said:
*applause*

See? whats wrong with having a little non-harmful fun every now and then?
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It's only non-harmful until harm is done.

Do you think people drink thinking, "Oh man, I hope I dont get so drunk that I dont know when to stop and get alcohol poisoning or get in a car with somebody who's been drinking and end up splattered on the pavement or die from cirrhosis at 50. That would suck."
 
#57
Ryan Berry said:
It's only non-harmful until harm is done.

Do you think people drink thinking, "Oh man, I hope I dont get so drunk that I dont know when to stop and get alcohol poisoning or get in a car with somebody who's been drinking and end up splattered on the pavement or die from cirrhosis at 50. That would suck."
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Whether you are 18 or 21 those things can happen.

Peace
Nick
 
#58
Just one phrase:

Different folks different strokes.

Some people don't like drinking and that is OK you can't be against someone for htat.

Some people like to drink and it doesn't make them stupid.

Sure non-drinker have tendency to say that drinking is bad.

But everyone can do watherver they want as long as they are not dangerous.

In french we say .Vivre et laisser vivre. it translates by .live and let live.
 

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