nearly 16 year old drinking

[childoftheeighties]

Just wondered what the general consensus is for an almost 16 year old girl having one small bottle of alcopops at a small house party attended only by females and with parents present? Is this deemed acceptable or irresponsible parenting? so difficult to judge what is the right thing:-(

[bigdonna]

my dd just turned 16 every party she goes to all the kids take alcohol i think as long as its not huge amounts its ok

[childoftheeighties]

Thanks. My dd has never drank before but this party she is going to they will be having light duty alcohol. Just second guessing myself.

[ChillySundays]

This was me this time last year. Think may have even started a thread. Let my DS take a couple of cans of lager.

Funny thing was that the ones whose parents wouldn't let them take alcohol were the ones who got the most drunk

There will be others who will be horrified for allowing alcohol. The parents will be there. I always told mine ( have an older DD as well) that I will always come and collect from a party if they call even if they are drunk. Neither of mine were party animals so haven't had to deal with this regularly.

[nooka]

My only concern would be that if she has never had an alcoholic drink before an alcopop might not be the best choice, as they don't taste very alcoholic so might be easy to drink a couple and get very unexpectedly drunk.

I wouldn't chose for my children to have their first taste of alcohol away from home and at a party, I'd prefer for them to have a bit more of an idea as to the effect on them first.

Otherwise no I see no real issue here, seems very normal.

[childoftheeighties]

Thanks for the replies..teenage years the trickiest yet..

[Canyouforgiveher]

Personally I don't think 15 is old enough to drink but I am living in a different culture. I don't think one drink at a party at that age is the end of the world though.

I would prefer my children drink proper drinks like a a beer or a cider or a glass of wine rather than alcopops or mixed drinks which are designed to mask the taste of alcohol and like nooka said, make it easy to knock a few back without realising the effect they are having/

[BackforGood]

Like others, I think it is best if they have the odd half glass of something at home / with you before allowing them to start consuming it at teen parties.

My 16 yr old has had a glass of something or other with us on several occasions, but her crowd don't yet take alcohol to parties. With my ds, that didn't start happening until they got into 6th form.

[ChillySundays]

Canyouforgiveher I tend to look at things in terms of school year groups sometimes. I imagine the fact she is almost 16 means she is a summer baby and is in Y11. They have finishing exams and them there will be the after prom parties. There will be few of them that are still 15

[bigTillyMint]

That sounds fine, although I a free with others saying maybe lager/cider rather than alcoholpops as they don't taste of alcohol so easy to not realise how much you are drinking.

DD has been allowed to take a couple of
cans/bottles of cider to parties since she was turning 15, along with lots of chats about the relative strength of different types of alcohol. There are always DC at the parties she goes to with vodka, etc, so it is very easy for them to drink whatever. Although she hasn't been to any parties for months due to GCSES!