Homebrew with your kids
A while ago Lifehacker posted an article that really makes me excited for the future when my son is older. The thrust of the article is that by taking away the mystery of alcohol you can help destroy some of that allure that draws kids to start drinking. If their attitude is, "hey that's just a crappy version of the stuff my dad makes" they won't be trying it in unmonitored situations.
My hope is that I can give some sanity to my son, I know that I never really had a problem with underage drinking and where I lived the attitude was pretty relaxed. The parents didn't encourage us or buy it, but we had a safe place to be and no one was allowed to leave if they drank so we didn't get into situations with driving. Personally I really only got "drunk" maybe 2 or 3 times in all of High School, and it wasn't really a big part of my friends agenda. I'm not saying we didn't play cards and drink beer or booze, but almost never was it a blackout fest or do stupid shit. Just that we did it for the most part sober. I think that the group of kids that was 4-8 years older than us partied so hard, we didn't want to end up like them so we where all pretty mellow.
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Interesting article!
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids yet, but when I do I've always thought to have this approach to, well, anything when it comes to kids. If you put the alcohol under lock and key, tell them it's BAD, and that they can NEVER TOUCH IT, what do kids want to do first? ... Exactly. Plus, when you're young and your palette isn't developed, beer is gross. I remember being 12 years old and asking my parents for a taste of their beer. They gave me a tiny sip... I thought it was disgusting. And I never wanted one until I was older.
ReplyDeleteSo true, alcohol abuse is a lot lower in Europe where alcohol is discussed early on and not vilified.
ReplyDeleteI wish I was drunk.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want your kids to become alcoholics then don't allow them to be friends with other alcoholics.
ReplyDeleteAlright, that irritates me a little @Lord Phorzen. I know that as a kid there was literally no way for my parents to distinguish which of my friends where taking drugs and which were not.
ReplyDeleteI plan on being that Dad who lets his 15-18 year old kids have a few friends over to crack a few beers every once in a while. I think its better to monitor what they're doing/drinking rather than letting them go out into a forest and drink with dudes who make moonshine...not like I know from experience or anything though...
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