<p>I think the drinking age should be 18. This said I did not allow my kids to drink in my home until they were 21. Not a good idea to teach “follow only those laws you agree with”.
I knew they would drink underage at school and made sure to give them as much heads up as possible on what could potentaally ruin their lives. They survived college and I count them as lucky.</p>
<p>^^^^Again, depending on the state, allowing one’s own child to have a drink at home could very well be within the law and not setting an example of disdain for the law.</p>
<p>Yes, in Wisconsin, in fact, it is legal to buy your kid a beer in a bar or restaurant, actually…not that I would, as a recovering alcoholic I never purchase alcohol. I do not, however, think that should prevent those who are not alcoholic from purchasing a beer or a glass of wine, personally, after the age of 19.</p>
<p>In our state, it is legal to serve your own child alcohol in your home. In many states this is the case, in fact.</p>
<p>wikipedia:</p>
<p>The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 states that revenue will be withheld from states that allow the purchase of alcohol by anyone under the age of 21. Prior to the effective date of that Act, the drinking age varied from state to state. Some states do not allow those under the legal drinking age to be present in liquor stores or in bars (usually, the difference between a bar and a restaurant is whether food is being served). Contrary to popular belief, since the act went into law, few states specifically prohibit minors’ and young adults’ consumption of alcohol in private settings. As of January 1, 2007, 14 states and the District of Columbia ban underage consumption outright, 19 states do not specifically ban underage consumption, and an additional 17 states have family member and/or location exceptions to their underage consumption laws.</p>
<p>interesting</p>
<p>^More inconsistency (no limits to drinking in private) that bolsters the argument that there is no rational basis for the age 21 minimum limit. 20-year-old Johnny can drink freely with mommy and daddy at home, but if they send him to pick up the six-pack, he can go to jail.</p>
<p>A trip back to the dark ages…</p>
<p>In Michigan, the drinking age went to 18 on January 1, 1972. I was a freshman at U of M at the time. Did it change our drinking habits? Yes, we went to the bars rather than drinking in our rooms or at the apartment/houses of friends.</p>
<p>Did it incease our level of drinking? Hard to guage, but we certainly had no problem getting alcohol prior to the change. Now you have to remember, the voting age had just changed to 18, 18 year olds were being drafted (maybe it was 19) and the argument went - old enough to vote and fight, old enough to drink.</p>
<p>Some years later it was changed back to 21, without grandfathering in those between 18 and 21 years of age. Boy, were they mad!</p>
<p>I am puzzled at what sax is taliking about in post 61. Follow what law? disobey what law? Does sax live in a state that has strict state laws that prohibit drinking in one’s own home if under 21?
poet is right. Anyone who forbids drinking in their home based on the Fed law(in post 64) is sadly misinformed.
There may be additional state laws, church rules, or there is parental “law”, but the fed law does not address in-home drinking.
Like Wis(post 63) an Ohio parent can buy alcohol for their offspring. This is also true for a married couple if one is 21 and the other not. Strictly speaking, the server must serve the drink to the parent, then the parent give the child the drink. In Ohio, an 18,19, or 20 yr old can attend a bar unoccompanied, with the owner or manager’s consent. As a dj for yrs, I can say the rule of thimb there is “if she’s cute we’ll let her in”.
Of course, other laws could come into play if a parent bought 10 shots for a 10 yr old.(example) but not laws on the purchase of booze.</p>
<p>The rationality of an age of 21 might be debated. There are those who point out a kid at 20 yrs, and 360 days old could be arrested, but one week later he’d be legal. True. But this logic would hold true at every age. Legal purchaser at 40? 30? 21? 10? Every age would have a day early and a day just right. Those who argue the rationality must believe that NO age should be set by government. I’m not sure I like 21, but I could not agree with no minimum age at all.</p>
<p>I have been surprised by the number of people who are completely unaware that in their own state or others, there is a parental and/or religious exception to underage alcohol consumption. In a state where it’s legal to allow allow one’s own child to drink at home or elsewhere with the parent present, those parents may still chose to establish their own home rules, OF COURSE. But it just kind of amazes me that there are so many people who firmly believe there is a federally mandated drinking age law that applies to everyone, and therefore automatically assume that any parent who allows an adult but not of age child to drink at home is breaking the law and setting a horrible example. Definitely not always the case. Even the 21 y/o “drinking age” is actually not a** drinking age** law in many states, but a purchase age.</p>
<p>In our state it is against the law to serve a minor, even your own child in your own home. Even if it weren’t, it is still against the law to serve any other minor. What 18 or 19 yr old wants to sit around at home and have a drink with their parents? The point is to be able to have a few friends over and drink responsibly.</p>
<p>my parents have give me a beer before but since we’re college students, it’s unlikely that alcohol will be served to us by our parents.</p>
<p>Two of my kids have chosen to write papers on the pros/cons of lowering the drinking age to 18. After spending a fair amount of time with them exploring the topic, I really feel there is only one logical conclusion. Because an 18-year-old has all of the legal rights of an adult (vote, own a business, enter into a contract, . . .) there is no reason not to treat them as adults on this issue.</p>
<p>The counterargument is always about drinking and driving/health/safety issues. But if that’s the decision point, why stop at 21? Why not raise the drinking age to 22? 23? Outlaw all alcohol consumption? It really makes no sense (and is not at all in keeping with the legal drinking age in other countries).</p>
<p>^I agree. If we are going to make the drinking age 21, then the voting age etc… should be 21 as well (or vice versa, make the drinking age 18, which I would prefer haha). There needs to be a common age where one is an “adult” according to the government as to not cause confusion.</p>
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<p>Our 20 y/o daughter has asked for a glass of wine at special family dinners. She has had a glass of wine at dinner at a restaurant with friends whose parents have been present at the table as well. It has always been just one glass. Additionally, several of our long time family friends have lake homes at the same lake. They all have children her age, and these kids have been able to have a beer together legally as their parents were all present at a lake house get together. Mind you, they are not getting drunk-parents have given permission for one or two drinks only and NONE whatsoever if any of them are driving. They seemed to think these were nice evenings-some of them actually enjoy their parents’ company from time to time, drink or no drink.:)</p>
<p>We recently visited Montreal and Quebec City with our 18 year old daughter. The legal drinking age there is 18. DD asked if she could have a glass of wine with dinner, and we were happy to oblige. It was an enjoyable experience for all, and frankly I see no harm in it. </p>
<p>College parties are another thing entirely; there the whole point seems to be to drink to get drunk. I’d disapprove of that even if DD were 21. Fortunately, DD has no interest in that scene. She went out of her way to avoid colleges with a large Greek presence (which in her mind is closely associated with binge drinking) and deliberately chose a college that does not have a hard-partying reputation. There were many things she liked about the school, but its relative sobriety was definitely part of it. Even there, though, we’re told alcohol is readily available to underage students, some students do drink to excess, and there are occasional incidents of behavior getting out of hand. DD signed up to be part of a college program that provides sober peer chaperons to assist anyone needing assistance at campus parties, a pretty good indication of where she stands on the subject. I couldn’t be happier about it. </p>
<p>I was a student in Ann Arbor when the drinking age was 18. I recall enjoying a beer or two at the local bars which had a very lively music scene in those days. But I don’t recall as much binge drinking as you hear about these days. The frats and sororities were all but dead then. People had house parties, but at least in the circles I traveled in drinking was pretty moderate. Maybe that’s partly because pot was the mood-altering substance of choice for many people. But I wonder if there’s something to the argument advanced by some college presidents that age-defined prohibition actually encourages binge drinking by making drinking seem somehow daring, defiant, rebellious, sexy, and “adult.”</p>
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<p>This is being nitpicky, but 18-20 year olds are not “minors” under the law. They are full-fledged adults. Again, more inconsistency: the law treats 18-20 year old adults like juveniles when it comes to purchasing alcohol, but if they are prosecuted for underage buying, they are tried as adults.</p>
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<p>Drinking age in my state was also 18 when I was in college. Binge drinking as it is done today was extremely uncommon then, at least in my experience at a large state U. Since we were legal, there was no reason “pregame” as they call it now. You were drinking in restaurants or bars where food was usually served. You weren’t chugging shots on an empty stomach in someone’s dorm room and I don’t ever remember drinking specifically to get completely wasted. In fact, we tended to frown on people who got sloppy drunk.</p>
<p>I think raising the drinking age has created as many problems as it has solved.</p>
<p>as a 17 year old- soon to be 18- i don’t get why people can’t wait to drink either.</p>
<p>i mean, i have suffered absolutely NO temptations to drink and i’m perfectly fine with it, i’ll prob drink a bit when of legal age but at this point, i don’t care about it</p>
<p>If it were legal – I have no problems with 18-20 yr drinking</p>
<p>Thoughts? – Ridiculous that the laws for driving, voting, military service and drinking are all different. Either be an “adult” at 18 with all legal rights including drinking or raise voting/military service laws to 21. </p>
<p>If I had the power – driving ages would be raised and drinking age lowered so all were 18.</p>
<p>So you’re saying that the Greek community is a bad influence on college campuses? I think you and you’re daughter are misinformed. I’m not going to say much, but being a part of the Greek community, I am somewhat offended by this statement. Whether there is a presence of a large Greek community on a campus or not, the decision to partake in drinking is solely up to each individual person. I drank before I graduated high school (I wish I would have waited looking back on it now), but I would have joined my fraternity regardless if I drank or not.</p>
<p>This thread is 3 years old.</p>