Worried about sending my child to college without a high school partying background.... Any advice?

Parents Forum
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I haven’t read all the responses, so pardon me if I’m just piling on. I would get very specific and practical with her this summer in teaching her about alcohol. The problem is that many (most) kids don’t realize how much they are drinking and in what amount of time. They need to be aware of it and/or set up “rules” for themselves that keep them safe; being an adult doesn’t mean you don’t have rules or operate without a safety net – but you have to create those rules and safety net for yourself. Some thoughts about how to get specific and practical:

  1. Get a standard red party cup. Pour 1-2 oz of water in it. Let her see how very little that is. THAT is one shot.
  2. Add another 3 shots of water to the cup. Let her see how very little that is. That is 4 shots; that amount of vodka or less, downed in a relatively short amount of time (< 1 hour), depending on her body weight, could send her to the hospital.
  3. Tell her to sip, not chug. If she has a beer, sip it and then go to the bathroom and fill it with water and carry the can around. Having a can in her hand will ward off repeated offers of more.
  4. Repeating a friend’s Rules for College Drinking: Don’t drink the punch or eat the jello; Beer only, no shots; No drinking games; Get your own drinks and don’t pick up a drink you’ve walked away from; Alternate water with alcohol; Never be alone, and never leave anyone alone.
  5. Make her sit down and do the math for how long it takes her body to process alcohol out of her system, and remind her she has to be aware of time. Falling asleep does nothing to speed up the process. “Last night” may have only actually been a few hours, and not enough time for her BAC to fall enough to drive.
  6. Remind her that injury due to alcohol is not just the extremes of alcohol poisoning or driving impaired. Walking impaired can also equal serious injury or death if you stumble into the street, or fall and hit your head, or are goofing around and fall over on your back on the arm of a chair and bruise your kidney (DS, his senior year of HS … I was ready to kill him if I hadn’t been so worried about him).

Good luck. The excessive and stupid use of alcohol by college students is rampant and is a parent’s worst nightmare for the potential consequences that they just don’t see, but that happen every single year.