If you caught your 15 year old dd drinking vodka in the park ......

[youneverbuyme]

Would you dish out a punishment? If so, what would you do?
Confiscate her phone? For how long?
Ground her for a week?
Nothing?
She was quite a way from home, train journey to get back, I've suspected before that she's been drinking, but this time she admitted it.
I'm concerned about her safety and lying about it to begin with. wwyd?

Natural consequence, killer hangover whilst you magically need to do housework and DIY including drilling and hoovering from 8am!

I grew up with parents who were publicans. They’ve always owned pubs & nightclubs and therefore had a quite relaxed attitude to drinking as long my brother & I were honest.

We never ever abused it. Because we were allowed to drink (in moderation) we weren’t compelled to get completely wasted, drink excessively or end up sick or doing ridiculous things.

I went to uni and I can tell you now that the most wild, out of control party animals were the kids who’d not been allowed such freedoms with alcohol. They didn’t know their limits and almost all of my friends/acquaintances who experimented with drugs were from strict households.

The same thing has been noted with my DP’s friend’s kids (he’s a lot older than me). The teenagers who are now out of control party goers at 17-22 years old are the ones with the strictest parents.

I wouldn’t ground your DD, like I said in my PP I would let her know she’s able to be honest and call you for help if needed. You should be able to talk openly about the dangers of drinking in healthy parent/child relationships without the stigma of being punished.

Those who think their kids won’t do it behind their back are completely deluded.

@MintyMabel

Mine would be grounded indefinitely.

This www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-57228247 should scare the crap out of any of those “cool” parents who think it’s fine for teenagers to get drunk with friends.

As a teen I saw a fair few friends getting in to real danger because of drinking. It put me right off.

I don’t agree with any argument that says they’ll do it anyway, and they need to be introduced to it blah blah. I wouldn’t that with any other of the drugs, why do it with alcohol?

I agree the incident should be treated seriously. I also saw really scary behaviour on parks etc as a teenager, I would be very happy for my children to miss out on this. House gatherings are less concerning to me as there is some control over who else is present.

I would ground my child if the alternative was they were in an unsafe situation and IMO drunk on spirits in a public park a train ride away at 15 years old is not safe.

Would you be happy to tell school about this scenario? I would not personally.

The fact your DD is not answering her phone is another reason to be worried.