To allow 12 YO DS a shandy made of alcohol free beer?

[Whatisthisfuckery]

I like a beer in the evening. I’ve decided to try alcohol free beer to reduce my alcohol intake. It’s pretty grim so I’ve been mixing it with lemonade to make it into shandy.

DS wanted a shandy, as it’s alcohol free. AIBU to have let him?

It’s not an every day thing btw, and he’s only allowed a very small amount of real alcohol on special occasions eg Christmas.

Also your recommendations for good AF beer if you have them would be most welcome.

Cheers

Another vote here for Brewdog's Nanny State. And I don't see any issue with allowing your son to drink one occasionally either. Teaching him that alcohol free beer is nice is a good step.

Genetics would worry me with his Dad and I just think the longer he stays away from it the better, but 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think if you show that drinking is not a big thing they will grow up thinking the same an dnot get crazy drunk. Both my partner and I was allowed to drink something at the weekends around 14 and nowadays we don’t really drink apart from weekends. If you make a big deal out of it and say no they are more likely to rebel

I let my 5 year old sip my non alcoholic beer. When my kids are older then I’ll let them have beer shandy or wine spritzer just as I did growing up. I would much rather them have a sensible approach to alcohol and think that a small volume at the weekend is pretty normal as opposed to something that is forbidden and thus hidden and something to neck down quickly whilst I’m not looking.
I can honestly say that having access to minor amounts of alcohol (real beer shandy for example) when young has made me a very boring drinker. I stop when I’ve had enough, I don’t ever NEED a drink, a bottle of wine doesn’t need to be finished on the night it was opened. Of course all of the above could be just nature - maybe some people are destined to be alcoholics and no matter what happens when they are young will always have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. But yanbu to give your kid a fake shandy.

Ps, why is everyone saying nanny state is nice? - it’s rank compared to other non alcoholic beers! Punk af is nice though. As is the Boston lager one.

Only non alcoholic one I have found I like is Koppaberg Strawberry and lime.

Another vote for Nanny State here - I’ve drunk a lot of the easy to get 0% ones (breastfeeding) and it’s my favourite. Also like Adnams Ghost Ship 0%. To me non alcoholic beers are just another drink to have as a treat - I don’t like sweet tasting drinks and so for me it’s the 0% beers or water if I’m not drinking and it’s a bbq etc. I actually grew up having small amounts of red wine from 9/10, which I know would horrify many now but I think it trained my taste buds to like it rather than the sweeter alcoholic drinks many of my friends were drinking a few years later. As a consequence I rarely get drunk and enjoy a glass of wine to savour. There’s no one size fits all approach to it.

My school vending machine in the 1980s sold Shandy with the Panda Pops.

We managed to evade the clutches of the Demon Drink despite their obvious attempt at engendering addiction. [/strike]

I was having real shandy once a week with a Sunday roast way before 12 years old, probably from around 8. It was around 1% alcohol. I don't think the OP would be unreasonable as it's not illegal but I wouldn't encourage it for my DD as it's not a healthy drink.

I remember first being allowed a little white wine, watered down, at 12 at a cousin's wedding, and after that, at Christmas or New Years, an occasional snowball or a bit of babycham. It definitely didn't turn me into an alcoholic, quite the opposite. Most of the time I preferred cola or orange. Or dandelion and burdock. Now you're talking.

Another vote here for the Brew dog one mentioned earlier - tried it last weekend for the first time, it was really good. (And I don't actually like ale that much.) We also tried Seedlip for the first time last week and that also wasn't bad (not sure it would make a good shandy though! )

When I was young, 11-12 onwards ish my parents would allow me a small drink of wine or beer on occasion. I’ve never been a big drinker and have only ever got pissed to the point of making myself ill a few times throughout my adulthood. I don’t drink much, and it’s certainly not every day, in fact some weeks I don’t bother at all. I rarely ever have more than a couple of glasses of wine or a couple of cans at the weekend. I like the odd Scotch or G&T, but I can have a bottle of spirits in the flat for months and it doesn’t get touched. I have a bottle of gin I bought on holiday at the start of August that’s still 2/3 full, and DP has helped with that while she’s been here as well, so I’m not in any way a heavy drinker.

Even in my teens I’d have a couple of cans of lager while all my mates were getting wasted on alcopops and I’d always be the sober one at the end of the evening.

I have no idea if alcoholism is genetic but if it is then it’s not on my side of the family, and me having the occasional drink or letting DS have an alcohol free shandy, which is basically pop, is not going to be the thing responsible for him subsequently having a drink problem, which I sincerely hope he won’t.

If I recall correctly when we were growing up, me, my DS and our four friends from the ages of about 10 would have weak cinzano and lemonade or babysham at parties or Christmas etc. We are now all in our 50s 40s (I am forty twelve!) and none of us have had a problem with alcohol . When we got to 18 we were not bothered about getting drunk as it was a normal thing .(alcohol, not getting drunk)

YANBU. You and your son are sharing alcohol free drinks. No more unreasonable than having a Diet Coke together or an OJ. Maybe not every night as the sugar and carbonated lemonade are bad for teeth. But occasionally - why not?

I don't see the harm. I grew up in a completely teetotal family and it certainly didn't instill me with any special ability to be responsible with alcohol.

IncrediblySadToo

Genetics would worry me with his Dad and I just think the longer he stays away from it the better, but 🤷🏻‍♀️

^
This

Why does your 12 year old need to pretend they're drinking? This is like those fake sweetie cigarettes they used to sell. Just no. Plenty of other things to drink which taste better around.

It’s not alcohol so I think it’s fine!

I quite like the brew dog alcohol free beers - nanny state and the raspberry one. But I’m not really a beer drinker.

I absolutely love mumsnet and alcohol. Anything more than a whiff of Prosecco once a year and you’re on a slippery slope 😂

I love wine! I just think it's an absolute myth that if your dcs aren't drinking wine with meals at 10 they will end up as binge drinkers!

As PP, nanny state (brewdog) is ok, but the best one EVER is 0.5% Adnams Ghost Ship. Amazing. Great complexity of flavour, the only real honest LAB which I would drink over supermarket alcoholic ones.

Good tip rona

Don't see the issue. I used to love a shandy!
I think that the less taboo something is, the better. Especially at that age. My two have had a sip of wine/ taste of my drink and actually think I'm mad and alcohol tastes disgusting. I used to be allowed a babycham at Christmas and am not a lush, promise!

You’d have to see if it’s actually non alcoholic as even those have 0.5% alcohol.

However if alcohol free then I don’t see an issue.

Most bars won’t see non alcoholic beverages to those under 18 as they still have traces of alcohol in.

Why not?

I just sent DS (12) to top up my wine and the bugger had a sip on the way.

Why do parents thing it's ok to give alcohol to a child? Would you let them smoke seriously WHY do they need a taste of a drink, doesn't matter if it birthdays or Christmas, sorry folks I just dont get it, there is a reason it has an age limit

Think not thing