AIBU 16 year old drinking at house party

[Fieryfighter]

Ds2 went to a party at a friend's house last night for a gcse celebration. The parents were there during the party, i know them but not well at all. I fully imagined there would be beer/cider or the suchlike there, I'm not naive. Ds2 was going to sleep over as were his other friends (turns out the kid's parents weren't exactly aware of this) He's been to numerous parties before, no problems.

Anyway ds2 called me around midnight asking me to come get him as he wasn't feeling well, he sounded ok so i asked him to walk to the taxi rank and get a taxi home as I'd had a large glass of wine earlier and didn't want to risk driving and he got home fine.

He told me he'd been drinking beer but also vodka and had got pretty drunk and was throwing up (in their loo so didn't make a mess anywhere) and wanted to come home.

He has been told before that I'm aware he'll probably drink beer but he knows I'm not happy with him drinking spirits. However I have always said that no matter what if he's in trouble and needs to come home to call and I won't be angry, just want him home safe. I'm pleased he did the sensible thing and called me, he got his friends to walk with him to the taxi rank and called them when he was home safe.

I'm however not happy that there were spirits available at a party for 16 year olds. From what i can gather they were freely available but I'm not sure if hosts provided them or not. I'm tempted to contact the parents to ask if they knew - if it were me I'd never have allowed spirits and would want to know so i could make very clear that was never happening again. And if they did allow spirits there i kind of want to say I'm really not happy about that.

Or should i just leave the whole thing and forget about it?

I would leave it. Teens smuggle all sorts to parties so chances are it wasn't the parents. Talk to your son-ask him. TBF if he's been so ill chances are he'd steer clear for a while anyway!

DD is sixteen and all the parties she's been going to over the last couple of years have had spirits. Vodka is the drink of choice. All the parents are aware of it and it seems par for the course. I wouldn't say anything if I were you.

I don't think I would say anything. I'd be really proud of my son for the decisions he made after he had been at the vodka. As above poster said kids experiment and you can't really stop that but seems like you have instilled the right things in him when he realises he's out of his depth.

from listening to the students at school vodka is the chosen spirit from a much younger age...

Perhaps I am naïve! I'm shocked that they're drinking vodka from an even younger age!!

We always drank spirits as didn't like beer /wine

Teens smuggle vodka into parties. Normally in water bottles, so it looks like water. But sometimes it's just available and doesn't need smuggling.

I think the key thing is to talk to your ds about it, and educate him about not drinking it. Vodka will always be available at teenage parties and he needs to manage that, or not go to parties.

Jesus wept, it's fine, leave it.

Me and my mates were drinking cheap supermarket vodka in the park from about 13. A bit of vodka at someone's house at 16 is nothing. We'd upgraded to ecstasy by 16.

We always had spirits. Usually rum but occasionally gin or vodka. We often snuck them in without the parents knowledge (it's very hard to keep on top of what everyone has and you can hardly frisk search them) so I would leave it if I were you. Have confidence in the fact that DS acted responsibly after drinking it.

Personally I'd leave it, and be reassured in how responsible your DS acted after drinking it. I doubt he'll be in a rush to drink it again, after being sick and how unwell he probably feels today.

Thanks all, I'll leave it. He handled what happened really well so I'll just trust him, I am proud of the way he handled things

Annoyingly he's pretty much fine today! I'd be dying in bed all day if it were me! 😂

Yes - I was shocked too. The first I found out was when my FIFTEEN year old son got drunk on vodka. We too collected him, brought him home and made him sit in the back garden throwing up into a flower bed! We put him to bed and then woke him up super early for his football match the next day where he had many headers to deal with.

To be fair the fresh air probably did him more good than lying in bed all morning.

He also has not touched a spirit since but does still have a couple of beers at teen parties!

Fiery the older I get the longer it takes to recover from a hangover! When I was 18/20 I could drink anything and be fine. Some years later (and I tend to take it easy 9 times out of ten because of this) if I have a heavy night it can take me days to feel right again!

I was drinking vodka and worse at that age - it's normal! At least he did the right thing - he rang you, got home safely and didn't just stay and carry on drinking or try and walk home to avoid getting in trouble.

I would imagine most of the alcohol was smuggled in in pre-mixed bottles, or in water bottles or handbags. That's what I did as a teenager and I can't imagine it's any different now!