This Fox News story on parenting is pretty standard stuff, but check out that book title:
Experts generally agree that parents aren't doing their children any favors when they buy underage drinkers beer in an effort to win affection or popularity.My wife and I have something of a middle ground attitude on under-aged drinking. I feel that by prohibiting alcohol to minors, it encourages them to 1.) disobey authority and 2.) view drinking as a sign of rebellion rather than as a social activity. That’s why, in my opinion, there’s such a problem with binge drinking in college. Drinking is viewed as a taboo, to be done quickly and behind closed doors. I’d like my kids to understand their own limits before they go away on their own.
"It's an extension of the same type of parent who ... would consider having graduation parties and serving alcohol to kids and saying, 'Oh, I'm taking keys,' and considering they are being the cool parents, actually thinking they should be voted parents of the year," said family therapist Carleton Kendrick, author of Take Out Your Nose Ring, Honey, We're Going to Grandma's.
"It is more important for them to be perceived as cool than it is for being a parent."
Personal anecdote: I knew a girl at Rutgers who – it was pretty obvious – just couldn’t hold her liquor. She was bombed after two beers (weighing about 80 pounds didn’t help). But she wasn’t intoxicated just on alcohol, but by the liberating feeling she got by letting down her inhibitions…which caused her to drink more. She became a concern to us because it was clear she was ripe for exploitation in her condition. Anyway, we watched out for her for the most part, but I developed the opinion that I wouldn’t want my kid to learn about alcohol consumption from peers. Not that I'm going to buy my kids a case of Coors, but I think some watered-down wine at dinner is a good way to remove the criminal stigma of drinking in a controlled environment.
Just my two cents. Some twelve-steppers out there may disagree.
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