How did you learn about drinking/ start drinking?

[Triffid1]

Just saw a thread about teenagers and drinking at parties and made me think. At 18, at uni, we all drank loads. There was some drinking under age at parties etc. But I can't quite remember how that all sort of happened?

At home, parents always drank with dinner etc. Quite young we were allowed a tiny glass of wine at Christmas/Easter/Birthdays. From around 15/16 wine/beer on the weekend at home.

I think that sort of conditioned me and taught me to like alcohol but not just to slug it back for no reason (although obviously got drunk many many times at uni!) and certainly in my case I never liked alcopops in any form - always drank beer, wine, gin&tonic etc - which I think might be because I grew up drinking wine/beer and the odd weak mixed drink?

How did you get introduced to alcohol and do you think it was appropriate?

Could probably say my parents took quite a French attitude to introducing me to alcohol. No one in my family is a big drinker and I was a teen the first time I saw a parent get tipsy (on holiday)...But drinking culture was still a thing as I moved into adulthood so from about the age of 16 friends parties included alcopops and by 18 we would always get very drunk together...It was a lot of fun and I don't regret it , we always took care of one another and never tipped over into delinquency. We all have very healthy relationships with alcohol now, know our limits and how to enjoy it best. I can take it or leave it and drunkenness happens rarely and spontaneously these days (and still fun) :)

My parents rarely drank when I was growing up and there was no alcohol in the house. Teenage rebellion meant I overdid it with my friends from 14-19. After which I settled down and started to have a better relationship with alcohol. Now I can take it or leave it.

My Dad would often open a bottle of wine at Sunday dinner, and anyone who wanted a taste of it could have one. I used to have a glass from when I was 15/16 - I didn't like it before that. He worked in the wine trade and would tell us about the wine and the proper way to drink it, so I learned that it was something to be appreciated, not something you just knocked back.

In my day, it was quite possible to buy a drink in a pub at 16/17, so I'd have a shandy or a lager or whatever when meeting up with friends. My parents were perfectly aware that I was going to pubs. I never rolled home plastered.

All that meant that when I went away from home as a student I had some idea what I liked or didn't like and didn't feel the need to drink for the sake of it or because I now had the freedom to do so.

Dad would drink at the wkends. Mum hardly ever drank. Never saw her drunk. Don't remember dad being drunk but I do remember he had stinking hangovers 😆

I started drinking at 12. Was Friday night out and about with my pals. Bumped into some other friends from school and they were drinking. Offered some cider, I accepted and well that was it every wkend. Used to half in for a big bottle with a pal. It was so much fun but now I'm horrified to think I was only 12. I only got caught once about 13 and grounded for a week or 2 but it didn't put me off.

We progressed to vodka about 14/15. Ironically I hardly ever drink now, I do say I did it all when I was young (very young).