What age did you let your children start trying alcohol!

[Whoopsywoo]

asking as I feel it shouldn’t until they are 16 my friend says I’m asking to be lied to

😂

Wow 😯 what was the reason ?

We don’t drink so don’t provide alcohol for our children other.

I don’t really buy into the ‘forbidding yo ur 10yo from drinking alcohol makes it more desirable’ either. In that case I might as well get them down the bookies to put a line on the football and a cheeky sniff of speed at the weekends fine from age 13. And if they want a little drive round the block, why not? It will make uninsured and unlicensed driving less desirable when they’re older. Drinking illegally isn’t acceptable. So I wouldn’t encourage or allow it in my house.

Ds had one drink on his 16th birthday, don’t think he did fit 17th

Does now drink at parties but at 17 is old enough

Probably 10 ish with a small amount of Prosecco on Christmas Day.

My 15 yr old says his friends regularly get drunk. We have only just started to let him drink cider more regularly than on special occasions.

I love how everyone's young adult kids on here 'never drink, don't like alcohol, have been drunk just once in their life'.

@hotdiggetydog

She literally said it (alcohol) was allowed for 5 year olds, so yes someone has suggested something of the "sort"

She correctly informed you of the law.

That is not the same as literally giving a 5 year old a jaegarbomb.

I think I might have tried sips of alcohol from a young age, maybe under 10? But I was probably 13/14 when I started having the occasional alcopop in the home or with friends and their families.

My parents were moderate consumers of alcohol and there wasn’t any mysticism surrounding it. We were trusted outside of the home and were effectively allowed to do what we wanted, but with a background of being encouraged to look after ourselves and others. We also lived a bit out in the sticks so once we got to going out age would often have to drive if we wanted to go out at all, so learned to be sober in social settings as a necessity.

My sister and I both did a bit of underage drinking, both went off to uni and overindulged a little at times there too, but during our 20s moderated our consumption quite naturally. We are in our 30s now and are, hand on heart, moderate drinkers.

It’s clearly a combination of factors that have led to this for us and ultimately parents know their child best in terms of what they need. But I do think a parent having an appropriate relationship with alcohol is a part of the puzzle, as well as the influence of kids’ peer groups.

I’ve let them have a tiny sip of my drink whenever they’ve asked at home. I barely drink though so this isn’t often!
From 14 ish they’ve been allowed half a cider/beer/wine at home if we’re having one (again, rarely).
I don’t know if I’d do it differently if I drank more regularly. I don’t think I’d want them having a drink every week

My 16 year old goes to parties every few weeks and has a couple of ciders and sometimes a shot or two of sourz. From picking her and her friends up from these parties I’d say they’re all pretty restrained in their alcohol intake and all seem similarly open about it with their parents.

Please read the sensible people OP and don’t leave it until 16. My cousins had that - now both heavy drinkers. I on the other hand was exposed to it way way younger and am not bothered with it as an adult.

My parents allowed me to have a sip any time I asked from any age. I can remember being very young having Christmas dinner with a tiny bit of wine in a glass topped up with a lot of lemonade. Their reasoning was it wouldn't be a bit deal once I started drinking without them. Unfortunately their logic was flawed and I was a prolific drinker from about age 16 to age 26!

Children learn more from watching what their parents do than from what they are told to do. So if parents drink in moderation and don't get drunk, or rarely drink, that is probably what teenagers will do once they are adults (once past the rebellious/experimental phase). On the other hand if parents are in the habit of drinking a lot and regularly getting a bit tipsy then that will be seen as normal - whether or not you actually allow them to have any themselves.
Obviously that doesn't always apply but the general idea of modelling the behaviour that you want rather than telling children what you want them to do works for most things

“To see if I liked it”

Have to add it wasn’t my parents. Elderly relative.

Do you really think those two things are directly related?

This thread has not really attracted the parents who have heavy drinking teens, but they do exist regardless of whether or not they drink safely at home with parents from a young age.

There are lots of studies done on how alcohol affects the brains of young people. I don't know the answer of what age is best. It depends on your teen, their friendship group, whether they go to parties, etc. but I wouldn't be rushing out to expose them early in the hopes that they would not drink excessively later on.

Huh?

We're not anywhere near this stage with our kids but I really have no idea what we will do. My partner never had a sip of alcohol before he was 16. I was getting shit faced behind my parents back from about 12. We were very different teens 😂

I was allowed a milky baileys at Christmas from about 14 at home and my parents would say that was my first taste of booze. As adults neither of us really drink although dp Will have wine if we have it in the house.

Following with interest, though it does seem teens are less and less bothered about booze. Might not be a thing when mine are teens.

I come from a background of alcohol induced violence and neglect. As a result I didn't have any alcohol until I was well into my 20s and I rarely drink, and I don't like drunks. Interestingly 4 of my 5 sisters are heavy drinkers and the other is teetotal.

With my own two I never offered them alcohol but allowed a small sip if they asked. They are both early 20s now and, whilst they have been drunk on occasion they are not big drinkers. DS1 might socialise once or twice a month and DS2 spends most of his time making sure his body is in tip top condition and wouldn't dream of ruining his strict regime with alcohol unless it's meticulously planned first 🙄

I don't think young people see alcohol in the same way as previous generations, certainly my sons and their friends seem decidedly unbothered about it.

My parents were not strict, but I had no interest drinking alcohol at home. I was definitely drinking Bacardi Breezers and other alcopops from when I was about 13 or 14 though. I wouldn't drink lots, just 1 or 2 at a party occassionally. I turned 16 (legal drinking age where I lived) during a school trip and the teachers actually gave me a glass of wine to celebrate!

I think a lot of it (bad habits) are out of our hands, to a certain extent. I don’t buy the ‘we never had sweets in the house and now I’m bulimic’ any more than the ‘my parents never allowed us a drop I’d alcohol and now I’m a binge drinker’. It’s really not that simple.

Maybebabyno2
Drinking culture has definitely changed since I was a teen.
Our 6th formers still go out and drink alcohol but it's different, at least it seems that way for girls.

I remember spending my 6th form days in the live music scene having a few drinks, or chilling at a house party. Mixed sex social occasions. Some nights were heavy, others less so, but they were primarily casual events.

Now I hear 6th form girls hanging around in swish local bars, increasingly single sex socialising, posing with cocktails, not outfit repeating, and it seems a lot more 'polished'.

I grew up having a glass of watered down wine with Sunday lunch from the age of about 5 (I'm talking a teeny bit of wine with lots of water) and a babycham or snowball at Christmas, and I don't think there was anything wrong with that and don't judge my parents for it. Yet I wouldn't dream of giving alcohol to my kids! Maybe if the older one (8) asked for a taste I'd let him have a sip but that would be it.

Sips at home when they wanted it always. Tbh they were rarely bothered. Ds1 (17) and his friends will have a couple of drinks when they get together on high days and holidays (ie not regularly). Ds2 (15) has no interest at all.

DH and I greatly reduced drinking in front of my primary age DC. We'd often have a beer or wine with evening meal. One of them has an addictive type personality already and was getting very curious about drinking and thinking it was cool so it concerned me that I was modeling and normalizing frequent drinking.

I was given sips of beer or watered down wine from primary age, was drinking from mid teens at home and I definitely had a binge drinking and dependency problem in my late teens and early 20s with problematic drinking in my 30s and 40s too. My siblings have also had some dependency on alcohol. Worth mentioning however we have a parent with alcohol issues. I wonder if this is the problem rather than the moderate drinking at home.

I would say 16. DHs family let the nieces/nephews drink from 12. Several have alcohol issues and one is an alcoholic so in that instance normalising from a young age didn’t work.

Parental supply of alcohol is a bad idea and associated with a greater risk of binge drinking and alcohol related harm - see linked paper www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(17)30240-2/fulltext

anyway young people are increasingly likely to be abstinent so it’s hardly a social imperative anymore
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