Should parents be able to give under 15's alcohol?

[Xaccers]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6596515.stm

Parents who give alcohol to children aged under 15 should be prosecuted, a charity has said.
The call comes in an Alcohol Concern report on the government's Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy.

Now, you may think they mean parents who give their kids copious amounts of booze in some sick way of getting kicks out of seeing their kids drunk, but no, they're talking about a glass of wine with Sunday roast, or a toast at an aunt's wedding (ok I was 14, how was I to know the glass was for the toast? I just downed it each time they filled it up, then went and had a lie down in my parents' car).

From my experience, underage drinking of a serious and alarming nature normally involves kids doing it behind their parents' back, such as downing a 3ltr bottle of cheap cider at the park.
Kids who've been brought up drinking responsibly, such as a glass with a meal, weren't the ones interested in getting hammered.
Were my dinner drinking friends and I abnormal?
Does a glass of liebfraumilch with the sunday roast lead to binge drinking?
Are people wrong when they look at southern europe with its dinner drinking 5 year olds and low levels of binge drinkers and then link the two?
Or is Alcohol Concern totally off target?

[Damien]

They should be given alcohol by their parents when young. Introduce them to it early and in a family setting and take away the appeal and mystery that banning it does.

In france they do this and they dont have a problem with binge and teenage drinking

[Chris T]

Alcohol concern have it completely wrong. The responsible attitude that I, my brother and sister have always had towards alcohol is in no small part due to the fact that we had (controlled!) access to it from a very early age - well before 15. Family celebrations were always accompanied by a bottle of Pomagne on the dinner table.

I won't say we were perfect as a result, but certainly we never had the sense that we needed to sneak out on a Friday night and get hammered on cheap cider like some of my classmates.

[Xaccers]

I agree with you both, and I can't fathom where Alcohol Concern get their idea from.
I'd have thought they'd actually know what they're talking about so would be targetting shops which sell to underage kids, and parents who let their kids drink to excess.
In Egypt there's a large number of alcoholics because people don't know how to drink. Rather than binging on cheap cider, kids binge on gin or vodka.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Chris T

Alcohol concern have it completely wrong. The responsible attitude that I, my brother and sister have always had towards alcohol is in no small part due to the fact that we had (controlled!) access to it from a very early age - well before 15. Family celebrations were always accompanied by a bottle of Pomagne on the dinner table.

I won't say we were perfect as a result, but certainly we never had the sense that we needed to sneak out on a Friday night and get hammered on cheap cider like some of my classmates.

I would have thought that young peoples need to 'sneak out and get hammered' stem from something being 'missing' in their lives, rather than the fact they never had a drink at a young age.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

I would have thought that young peoples need to 'sneak out and get hammered' stem from something being 'missing' in their lives, rather than the fact they never had a drink at a young age.

Well, with my friends who used to do it, the thing that was missing was the understanding of what drinking is all about.
They thought that you drink to get drunk, rather than drink to relax or to enjoy the drink.

[freezin]

I think responsible parents know their own children best and the government and its advisors should keep out of what should be private family matters.

France doesn't have binge drinking on the scale that we have, but maybe we just got their first. The Times reports on a French survey ...

FRENCH teenagers are adopting the British habit of binge-drinking, with a craze for alcopops among girls and pupils turning up drunk in class, according to a state report and accounts from teachers ...

Personally, I think alcopops are a major part of the problem.

[superbiatch]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

I would have thought that young peoples need to 'sneak out and get hammered' stem from something being 'missing' in their lives, rather than the fact they never had a drink at a young age.

Nope (at least not when i was a teenager). It was purely about doing something you weren't supposed to do.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by freezin

I think responsible parents know their own children best and the government and its advisors should keep out of what should be private family matters.

France doesn't have binge drinking on the scale that we have, but maybe we just got their first. The Times reports on a French survey ...



Personally, I think alcopops are a major part of the problem.

Another thing about France is they've kept the "you should be ashamed of being blind drunk in public" attitude.

[BBKing]

Should parents be able to give under 15's alcohol?

Yesh.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by superbiatch

Nope (at least not when i was a teenager). It was purely about doing something you weren't supposed to do.

Surely they would still do that, even if taught responsible drinking, as they still weren't supposed to go out and get slaughtered?

[superbiatch]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Surely they would still do that, even if taught responsible drinking, as they still weren't supposed to go out and get slaughtered?

In answer to your original question then, i didn't have anything 'missing' in my childhood. I come from a stable working class household and it was probably more a peer thing you do - like smoking, or drug taking

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Surely they would still do that, even if taught responsible drinking, as they still weren't supposed to go out and get slaughtered?

If they're the sort of kids to do it anyway, then not having a glass of wine with a meal at home isn't going to make a difference.
All my friends who were allowed to drink were much more responsible when drinking outside the home, all those who weren't allowed alcohol at all tended to over do it and end up staggering home or falling asleep by the side of the road.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Well, with my friends who used to do it, the thing that was missing was the understanding of what drinking is all about.
They thought that you drink to get drunk, rather than drink to relax or to enjoy the drink.

I would say our teenagers drinking patterns have many different reasons, things like parental responsibility and social circumstances for instance, that's not to say I think it's a bad idea for them to have the occasional drink, it's just I don't think it will solve the problems of youngsters anti social drinking

---------- Post added at 11:04 ---------- Previous post was at 11:02 ----------

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Another thing about France is they've kept the "you should be ashamed of being blind drunk in public" attitude.

Have we ever had such an attitude, you can read reports today of people falling out of 16th century gin houses and they read similar as they do today

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

I would say our teenagers drinking patterns have many different reasons, things like parental responsibility and social circumstances for instance, that's not to say I think it's a bad idea for them to have the occasional drink, it's just I don't think it will solve the problems of youngsters anti social drinking

Would help teach them to drink responsibly and show them at an impresionable age that drinking too much leads to headaches etc.