<p>I have been drinking on weekends with friends since my freshman year of high school. I have absolutely no health problems, I am a responsible guy when the situation calls for it, and I am a solid student- I am now a freshman at Stanford. If anything, drinking throughout high school has prepared me for drinking in college in the sense that I don’t do stupid things at parties, I know when to cut myself off, etc, and that I know how to balance drinking with school work.</p>
<p>I will also say that there are a lot of kids who obviously had no experience drinking before arriving at college and they are the ones who tend to drink too much and wind up getting in trouble for it. Even after just one quarter of college, I can’t tell you the number of times that my dorm mates and friends have had problems with this.</p>
<p>I don’t suggest that you as parents should force your kids to drink or anything like that; just know that your kids will be exposed to alcohol as soon as they get to college, even at top schools, and you won’t be there to help them with making decisions about it.</p>
<p>My kids live in a community where drinking is very much part of the adult social scene since we live in a resort area. Drinking at the yacht club, drinking on the beach, drinking outside in the snow in the winter a community straight out of the 70s preppy handbook. Because most of these activities are family activities…from the time the kids were little to the time they grew up, they were around us adults. Obviously mirroring society in general, some of the adults don’t drink so they are exposed to that philosophy also. Bottom line is we know our kids are sneaking stuff from someone’s parent by the time they are in late high school. I really thought I could keep that from happening and my S never took anything from us that I figured out, but I also realized I would be totally naieve to think it wasn’t happening. Somehow these same kids seem to grow up with a pretty reasonable attitude and a pretty reasonable ability not to get entirely “stoopid”. And having been through this with Son 1, I’m less scared about it for the next two. It’s pretty difficult for 6-10 teenagers to get drunk when all they can steal is enough beers to stuff in the pockets of their winter coats, or manage to wrangle an opened 1/2 bottle of Captain Morgan’s wrapped in a beach towel. By the time they actaully have enough peach fuzz on their face to maybe illegally purchase enough alcohol to get drunk or find a 21 year old friend, they’ve pretty much learned how to drink and frankly the “thrill” is diminished. I heard some pretty scarey stories from a couple parents this Christmas vacation whose children did not engage in this activity in high school. These “new” college drinkers just don’t know what happens when you drink alcohol and passing out, throwing up, and emergency room trips really do happen. So this is a parent who really abhors excess alcohol consumption in general for any age person, who really wanted her kids not to drink until it was legal, who talked to her kids ad nauseum about the good, the bad and the uglies and is a total control freak but realized that I could not control the prevalence and ease at which under age kids find alcohol. I really wish the drinking age were 18 because adding the legal implications of minors drinking really adds more stress to the parent…not the kids. I have changed my tune and will allow our kids a glass of bubbly on New Years, an occasional beer or a glass of wine in our home without feeling guilty because I fear the repercussions of that thinking is far less dangerous than sending a naieve kid off to any community with a strong drinking culture. It pains me morally because I’m generally a law abiding person who doesn’t even speed to the amusement of my husband, but my protective motherness is stronger than my moral anxiety about the legalities of underage drinking. All that said, I know there are kids who never touched a drop of alcohol in high school, I know there are kids who grew up in homes where alcohol was fairly used or used not at all. There are school and towns where teen drinking is a huge thing and other communities where it’s not so prevalent. But, as a parent you cannot know and you cannot predict how you child will react when cut loose in a college or university setting with all new peers and a different culture than maybe they experienced during the HS years, so I’m more of the “teach 'em” or “let 'em learn” while you can still influence school of thought which is 180 degrees from where I was 4 years ago.</p>
<p>You have stated that alcohol has “health benefits”, like preventing heart disease (a very, very mild effect, nonetheless). I’m sure all of the kids getting smashed in college are very heart-health conscious, and that they have carefully considered the benefits and risks of alcohol consumption before deciding to partake. Those 18-year-olds have to look out for their cardiovascular health, never mind the intoxication.</p>
<p>If that is seriously the best justification anyone can give me for alcohol consumption, then I don’t see how anyone can rationalize its use. I know that everyone encounters it in college, but that is also no excuse. WHY is it there? WHY do we use it? WHY do we DEFEND it? Can you tell me it is good, or is “it’s going to be there anyways, so get used to it” the best argument? Alcohol consumption should at the very least be gradually reduced, but many on this board are actually promoting it. Why? Because it’s good for your heart?</p>
<p>I think it’s time for us all to look at drinking in a new light. Instead of being defensive about why our society drinks, we should be asking, “Why DOES our society drink?”. I don’t think anyone can tell me that alcohol is something great that should be promoted. If it’s not something good, then why consume it? Because people around you are? Lame.</p>
<p>I’m not being some kind of moral crusader, and I’m certainly not stupid. I’m asking a serious question, and I’m asking all of you to think about it. Drinkers act like they’re cornered animals when this discussion comes up, but if they were all as in control of themselves as they pretend to be, they’d be able to give me answers instead of cheap defenses and name-calling.</p>
<p>Maybe alcohol is immoral, maybe it’s not. But it IS bad for you. I’m not concerned with the ethics of it, but I am terrified by the implications it has on society.</p>
<p>Do you like sweets? I personally like tiramisu. It’s not healthy, it’s not good for me, there is no sense in eating it. I would be much better off eating something else. But I like it. Not as a main course, not for breakfast every day, but as a nice dessert. I also enjoy a glass of good wine. I don’t drink it because my neighbors do, I drink it because like a slice of tiramisu, a good book( why do we read fiction anyway, we don’t gain any knowledge) it brings some pleasure into life.</p>
<p>Jesus made water into wine at the wedding when it ran out. His mom told him to. I don’t feel guilty about enjoying a glass now and then. If it was so darn bad, Jesus wouldn’t have done that, and his mom wouldn’t have encouraged it.</p>
<p>Straw man argument. I never said that college students drink for the mild health benefits. I was simply responding to your assertion that alcohol has no health benefits. It does. You were wrong. Deal with it.</p>
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<p>No, because some people enjoy it. And no matter what you think about it, what other people choose to enjoy is absolutely none of your business. End of story.</p>
<p>Alcohol creates addicts, alcohol kills people, alcohol results in horrible, terrible things. But for some people, it creates enjoyment. And as long as that is the case, it will not and should not be banned. Period.</p>
<p>(On another note, since alcohol prohibition results in far worse tings, like massive organized crime involvement, getting rid of it might actually be worse for other reasons as well)</p>
<p>Im having a beer right now at a coffee shop after working on finaid forms and listening to Wishbone Ash live dates that I have not heard for 30 years-</p>
<p>I deserve it- I had to do our tax forms before I could do the FAFSA and the PROFILE-
Lucky for me I can’t read the calorie count :)</p>
<p>This thread has gotten so far off track, I had to go back to the first post to make sure I knew what it was about. </p>
<p>One point that I read over and over was that it’s a given that kids will drink. In my experience that is not the case. Yes, they may try it but I actually know 21 year old young adults that (gasp!) prefer not to drink alcohol! My son attended a New Years party where he was probably the youngest at 20 (almost 21) and there was no alcohol served except for a New Years toast. And that was the attendees preference. One of the kids did have some wine with his folks before going over. Who knew that college kids could play games besides beer pong?!</p>
<p>I know adults my age that also don’t drink and it’s really not that big a deal.</p>
<p>Were we talking about mass murder? No. We were talking about drinking alcohol. Your constant attempts to create straw man arguments are getting pretty annoying.</p>
<p>Assuming that post wasn’t just totally facetious, I must assume you realize that having a beer (which, in the absence of you drinking and driving or beating someone, does not hurt anyone) is in a completely different category of morality than murdering someone. If not, I see little hope for a legitimate argument with you.</p>
<p>My argument is farfetched. But it makes just as much sense compared to alcohol and the arguments with fast-food and other junk food compared to alcohol. THERE IS NO COMPARISON.</p>
<p>No it doesn’t. The argument against allowing mass murder is that it infringes upon others’ rights. Drinking alcohol does not. Ergo the comparison is completely 100% invalid.</p>
<p>The junk food one is slightly contrived, but not nearly as much. People keep saying that alcohol is bad for you and that is why it has such a high minimum age. My point was that junk food, which is also bad for you (and I know it’s not bad in moderation - but neither is alcohol!), has been shown to be potentially addictive (at least psychologically), and is something you do not NEED, much like alcohol, is not banned, has no minimum age for consumption, and no regulation or monitoring.</p>
<p>Obviously the two are not the same, since alcohol is also physically addictive - but that is about the extent of the major differences. So while my example is slightly contrived, yours is just meaningless.</p>
<p>Yes. But unless the person goes and does something illegal like driving while drunk, the impairment is irrelevant. If I want to be impaired by myself, it’s my right - it’s when I put others’ lives at risk that it becomes unacceptable.</p>
<p>Gosh - sure feels like the bully is in the room on this thread - uuggh.</p>
<p>Fact - Alcohol is impairing (and addictive - alcoholism is considered an illness). Impairing by any intake of it - proven fact - junk food is not - so no comparison is needed.</p>
<p>For some - intake - even in moderation - of alcohol does not not seem to wreak havoc - but for others - that same intake can be devastating.</p>
<p>I think there are kids that don’t drink, just like there are adults who don’t dinrk. My husband doesn’t. I do. My oldest son does, my middle son doesn’t. Kids under 21 drink. They shouldn’t, it’s illegal. I don’t necessarily agree with the law having been raised in a European family so I tend to have to live in a moral dilema. Break the law or protect my children. Not pleasant for any parent to deal with. I do absolutely refuse to get in some ridiculous argument about whether it’s healthy or not healthy or whether it should be totally illegal. Prohibition was a huge failure so not even worth going there. To each his own. Strengthen the laws regarding drinking and driving, and give people the right to govern behavior in their own homes, the law has no business interferring there.</p>