Drinking What Age?

[Zardnaar]

Kind of a spin off on my how young drunk thread from a while ago.

Just wondering what age in your country is drinking acceptable?

In NZ alcohol was all around as a kid. It was in sauces, cakes, desserts, cough medicine. You might be allowed to sip beer and I got drunk young via sneaking it. And promptly vomited.

But the question is when did your parents allow it and why?

My mother allowed me to drink with my step brother aged 14. He was 5 years older than me so hanging out with older guys cars, motor bikes, beer, was really cool. I also got to hang out with their girlfriends who were older than me so I got the adult version of the facts of Life speech aged 14, I knew where babies came from very young.

My mother trusted my brother and she knew what was going on but I was also working in the weekends on a farm and hit my current height aged 15.

I was allowed to go to teen parties and drink unsupervised aged 16 age 17 functionally I was treated as an adult except I legally couldn't buy booze but there were ways around that.

Age 17 I could leave town go to the city and do whatever I liked.

Never really liked it that much except at things like birthdays. Mum took all the teen rebellion thing out of it and my friends loved my mother as some had fairly crappy home lives.

Other parents didn't mind the supervised drinking so much better than the alternatives and there were a few other places you could go and have a beer with XYZs parents.

My first girlfriend as such meet the parents and dad offers me beer. Aged 17 he wanted to see how I would handle the booze. Drunk 2 or 3 and stopped and he liked that.

Didn't like beer much spirits where my thing and Sambuca was a good social thing. Goth chicks liked it and I liked goth chicks.

Didn't really like beer outside social situations until I was in my 30s.

Mates daughter aged 14 turned up with bottle of beer at one of our family things. The ladies like wine alot but yeah it's not any different to when I was 14.

NZ does have binge drinking problems....

 

[rah]

Growing up in Northern Illinois, we could go to Wisconsin where the drinking age was 18 and I was one of those born at the right time because they lowered the age in Illinois to 19 about 45 days before my 19th birthday then raised it back to 21 sometime when I was in my later 20's.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I was in college before I took my first drink, and even then I practically had to be coerced to do so. My fanatically religious parents always told me about the "demon drink" and scared the hell out of me. So much so that I was never curious.

 

[Akka]

Drinking some wine is seen as acceptable from a pretty young age here. Cultural traditions and all that.
I guess that tasting it is fine at about 10-12, actually drinking some small amount from something like 14 and we aren't surprised to see people above 16 to regularly get smashed.

Not that I approve, but then I dislike both alcohol and drunk people so I'm not the best example.

 

[Socrates99]

I was in college before I took my first drink, and even then I practically had to be coerced to do so. My fanatically religious parents always told me about the "demon drink" and scared the hell out of me. So much so that I was never curious.

Wow, I thought mine were bad. That sounds like the mom on Waterboy. I was just telling my wife the worst punishments weren't being spanked or grounded. It was the heart to hearts chock full of quoted bible verses that are meant to scare/guilt kids into behaving.

I'm on the fence about the drinking age myself. In the US its 21 which seems kind of absurd considering the choices and responsibilities we give 18yr olds. Also starting at 21 means they're away from their parent's (hopefully) positive example of how to drink responsibly. On the other hand its extremely common for teens to own their own cars and drive regularly. When the age was lowered teen drinking and driving skyrocketed.

Personally I'd be happy with the age where it's at but with less punitive laws about buying for minors and no punishment for parents. One of my friends in high school had a mom that bought for us. She had strict rules or we wouldn't be invited back. He was the one in the group you could trust to stay in control and keep parties from getting out of hand long after we hit the age where we could buy our own.

 

[sophie]

I think 16 is fine. Most kids are going to start drinking around that time anyway, and as a (some day, hopefully) parent, my principal concern wouldn't be stamping out the practice altogether, but rather ensuring that there's someone there to keep an eye on them and to make sure they aren't going hurt themselves (or others) or do something unbelievably dumb and reckless (as kids are wont to do).