How did you introduce your teens to alcohol?

[Palorad]

I'm moreso curious about how you taught them about spirits and when they moved on from beer, winer and cider

Three adult sons, i allowed them to drink at home (small bottle beer or half glass prosecco) from about 14. Out of them only one really drinks and never been out of control drunk. I have, however, been called in the early hours to collect them from town as they couldn't get their drunk mate home who wasn't allowed to drink🤦‍♀️

I never did. My son started with the odd beer/lager at parties but doesn’t drink anything stronger. My DD will not touch anything alcoholic. Surely it’s something you try at some point at a party or pub/club and you either like it or not? You don’t need to be introduced by your parents.

We’re in France. I’ve always let DS try whatever I’m drinking if we’re out for a meal (we don’t normally drink at home). If it’s wine or champagne, we’ll discuss the different grape varieties and methods. He very much associates wines with eating.

My daughter’s 14 so we’re not quite at the spirits stage yet, but we’ve started talking about alcohol in general, what it is, how it affects you, and why some drinks hit harder than others. I’ve tried to be open so she doesn’t feel the need to sneak off or rely on friends for info.
She's also using the teen wellbeing app luna (weareluna.app) because it covers peer pressure, growing up, and choices in a really age-appropriate way because it's written by experts. I do really trust it and she's also asked it a question before and a doctor will reply, she actually did ask a question about hangovers out of curiosity and I liked that the answer was balanced and not nagging her. Hope this helps!

When we had something supposedly alcoholic (zero alcohol drinks) they were allowed to taste it but we were cautious because it could lead to wanting to drink the alcoholic version. It aligned with parties and other people talking of drinking so Ds1 was 15 but not at these parties, just comments made by others at school. I made him measure out with a measuring spoon a "shot" of water to show how little vodka should actually be poured into a glass and he learned about units of alcohol at the same time.

He didn't like the taste of beer which was actually Peroni Zero or Guinness 0.0 so no actual alcohol in it and I have tried to find nice zero alcohol wines but they are all terrible however zero alcohol Prosecco is nice to him. He also liked Kopparberg fruit cider again alcohol free. Dh has been teetotal for over 10 years due to medication.

Ds2 now 19 hasn't ever even tasted it, is not interested in it in the slightest. It is classed as a carcinogen and both my sons know that. When going to parties Ds1 takes cans of lemonade.

I certainly haven't. I did let them have an occasional beer/cider/wine from like 14, but that's it.
That said, teenagers will be getting pished with their mates regardless of what you allow or not ant home. Its a rite of passage.

Going to house party’s, I’ve got them alcohol to take with them. Better to buy it for them and know what they are drinking than them make concoctions when there.

My son is 19, has a great social life goes out with his mates and gets drunk every now and then. I let him have an occasional beer at home from the age of about 16. He also has confessed that him and mates were drinking from about the age of 15 in the local park, so he did a pretty good job of convincing a beer was a new thing to him. I was probably worse at that age.

I was allowed a small glass of alcohol from a very young age, either at Christmas or if there was a special celebration and always a small glass of wine with Sunday lunch. No big deal was made of it. I'm not an alcoholic and I only drink if I go out - which is very rarely these days. My son lived with me in Italy until he was 12 and drank watered down wine with meals like the other kids. He's now in his forties and has a cold bottle of beer/cider now and then and enjoys a drink at Christmas/special occasions. He's not an alcoholic and would much rather have chocolate. My late DH on the other hand grew up in a religious family where alcohol was the devil's work. Ironically he became a raging alcoholic and it eventually killed him. I don't think there's a definitive answer.

I can’t me from an european country where alcohol is a pretty normal thing g to drink - but getting anything more than slightly tipsy is deeply frowned upon. Even slightly tipsy is really not something you would do more than once if you value your friendships. You wouldn’t drink more than a glass or two of wine any more than burying your face in a whole cake. its just not done.
I’m bringing my kids up the same I was brought up: alcohol is something to carefully enjoy, but people who do not know their limits are fairly disgusting.
it seems to work.

We didn’t. It never occurred to us that introducing our kids to alcohol was our responsibility. It’s certainly not something we experienced with our parents.

Our eldest had his first beers at his y13 leaver’s ball. Then he went off to uni and got his beer legs there.

The younger one didn’t drink until he went to uni after a gap year, so he was 19. He’d been to parties and had parties at home, but had not bothered with drinking. He still doesn’t much like alcohol. So many of their peers call themselves ‘sober curious’, I quite admire it because I totally binged drank at their ages and thought any big night out involved getting shit-faced.

Mate they were doing it anyway behind your back 100000% 😂

Bless all the parents thinking their teenagers don’t drink🤣🤣🤣

I drink and have a nearly 17 year old. No plans to introduce him to alcohol. He says he's not interested, that might change, if so I'll just talk to him about the perils and hope for the best I guess.

Depends on your culture I think. Wher I’m from we have it a lot with dinner and meals last hours. Children might have the odd taste growing up. It was never made a big deal of and was normalised so I never felt the need to binge. I had tried it, knew what it was like and that was that. I was taught how to drink responsibly.

i think if you ban it it makes it more appealing

My oldest is 14 and I haven't introduced it to her. I let her have a sip once when I made a drink with gin and crushed watermelon because it looked interesting but a sip was enough to tell her she doesn't like it. She gets outraged when I use wine in cooking so I don't think she's anywhere near interested in drinking herself yet and I hope that remains so for at least a couple more years.

But this talk of introducing children to alcohol reminds me of a moment that appalled me even as a teenager. I went to visit my mum at work and was in the staff room listening to the chatter and one woman was saying that she had bought her 7 year old an alcopop for Christmas, for a treat. 7 year old!!

This sounds absolutely lovely and civilised. An enjoyment of a fine wine 😊

We’ve let our 16 yr old have the odd glass of wine or beer.

No spirits till he’s 18.

I let DD13 have an occasional sip of my drink if I'm having one, pink gin with lemonade or a cocktail. I think if its not 'forbidden' it'll be less exciting later on 🤷‍♀️

I know 😂

We rarely drink so, when we did, we offered them wine, cider or beer at a meal as we did anyone there. They rarely wanted any.

They are both late 20s now and my daughter only drinks a strawberry daiquiri on special occasions and, to be honest, she'd probably prefer one without alcohol and just the strawberries! My son drinks a rum or cider occasionally and plays making cocktails at Christmas. All very low key stuff. I doubt either have ever been drunk.

I know right 😂😂😂

They will drink if they want to. Where’s there’s a will, there’s a way. Cue drunk first timers at university. Away from parents, plenty start drinking. At home some dc won’t because parents won’t accept it. Going to parties when off the lead, they drink. A few don’t but this thread isn’t representative!

I think the important message is how they keep themselves safe. Not feeling the need to go mad when they drink when they're away from the home is part of it but the rest is making good choices - and that means explaining that it's difficult to make good choices when they've had too much to drink. I've impressed on my young adults they need to know when to stop drinking.

I have never banned or censored alcohol and if they wanted to try some of the wine or beer we were drinking they were allowed to. They’re 19yo is at uni and rarely drinks as she’s into sport and fitness and that’s her social scene. The 17yo sometimes goes to parties and he’s allowed to take a few small cans of cider. The last time he came home with them as he couldn’t be bothered drinking.