12 year old sipping alcohol!

[TillyTots1234]

Hi,
My husband on regular occasions allows our 12 year old (almost 13) son to sip his alcohol (beer), he told me tonight that he allowed him to have some of his beer, when he took him on holiday on a skiing trip. I said I thought it was irresponsible and he should discuss it with me first. Am I being unreasonable? My own father drank heavily when I was a child and I don’t drink atall , my husband drinks beer most days. I told him he was being irresponsible because in my opinion it’s far too young to even sip alcohol. He seems to think exposing him to alcohol at an earlier age will give him a healthy attitude towards alcohol but I’m not in agreement with him. What are your thoughts?

Yabbers why is that? Its not like France have suddenly relaxed towards alcohol, Pretty much the opposite.

I really couldn’t get stressed about it.

We never ‘banned’ alcohol from our 6 and they were allowed a small beer or spritzer with Sunday dinner from they asked about it. Some hated it and stuck with lemonade. Some enjoyed it. A couple of them don’t drink at all now, but they all seem to have a healthy respect.

I'm not sure how much impact parental rules have either way. Friends are more of an influence.

Ban it and your DC may follow suit or they may see it as exciting forbidden fruit and go mad as adults. Or offer wine / beer / fizz from the teenage years if they want it and they could develop a taste for it or alternatively not be bothered.

Personal experience? I came from a family of v light drinkers but I was a binge drinker during my late teens and 20s. We've always offered our DC drink if we are drinking and they're not bothered. DH is 19 and sticks to orange juice.

The difference is that my friends drank, DS's not so much.

Once in a blue moon not a problem.

I wouldn’t do it on most days!

The chief medical office agrees with you op. If you must give alcohol to children then not before 15.

As others have said half a glass as a very occasional treat on special occasions (Xmas, weddings, birthdays) won’t do any harm but it should be an every week thing. A 12 year old can’t process that much alcohol safely and there is no evidence that drinking small amount from a young age prevents problem drinking later.
I was recently at a party with my DSis and 13 year old niece she let her have 3 vodka and cokes which I think is way too much but I was told I was being a kill joy.

A tiny sip to taste alcohol is quite common at that age and I wouldn't worry about it, regular sips every week is really quite different and is normalising drinking every day. I don't know how you can deal with it though, how do you normally go about resolving things when you disagree with each other?

My parents let us have drinks as teenagers when we wanted to, it wasn't until university that I really drank too much, which was more about friends as someone said above. I grew out of it, then drank more during the wilder stage of the IT era, then drank less again. Again, it was more about the people around me than what I'd grown up with. I find it disturbing when people talk about having a bottle of wine every night, your body might cope with that for a while in your 20s but it has to be damaged by continuing that behaviour later on.

In my family us kids where allowed sips of peoples alcohol from a young age but only at Christmas my sister had her own wine glass none of us have turned in to raving alcoholics quite the contrary actually for me am completely tea total and my sister very rarely drinks the idea behind it was to take the mystery out of it and it worked we never ever went down the park drinking cheap cider with our friends we learnt how to be responsible and not act stupid and we have all grown up with a perfectly healthy relationship with alcohol.

@Singletomingle

I have no idea why it is, but the statistics are there.

In fact, the only nation that you mention where it isn’t on the rise is Italy. And it has reduced in the U.K. I think you need to review correlation v causation.

. If they are drinking cheap cider in the park at least they know its 'naughty' whereas when parents are I troducing them to it is normalising it.
I live in an a affluent professional village and people's glass recycling bins are shocking. I think a good many must be high functioning alcohol dependent.
On Friday dd 17 went to an early evening school event for year 13 leavers many of whom were still 17, and were served wine. There is just no need!

t depends whether he's encouraging him or demystifying drink. I let DC try a sip of wine at that age. DS2 hated it and has never wanted to try it since. (Result!) DS1 liked it, so we bought him a tiny crystal sherry glass when he was about 14/15 and let him have a glass on special occasions (about 50 mls.) He's now late teens and still sips from that glass if he has wine at home, which is occasional. I think it demystifies it, and stops it from being an exciting forbidden fruit to have in secret.

And the only time I have ever been drunk was basically a scientific experiment to see what it was like, alone in my student room, imbibing a precise number of units based on the NHS binge drinking definition.

This made me smile It's so... precise, the very antithesis of binge drinking, and strangely admirable, somehow!