Children and alcohol in their own home

[Vickie]

I doubt I'd give Hannah alcohol at a young age. We don't have it in our house (except for the odd occasion where Stan has friends over and he might drink a beer or two). There is a history of alcohol abuse in my family (father was an alcoholic) so it's not really something I want in my house. I'm not saying it's wrong but it's just not for us because of my past.

 

[babezone]

gosh wat a thred lol....i personally wouldnt give y child a DRINK of alcohol at 5 how ever if my child asked me for a mouthful n asked wat it was i wud say its yukky and tastes horrible and if thy insisted id let thm have a taste as hopefuly the 1 shock of a horrible taste wil make thm go yuk n not want it again. i think by the tme a child reaches the age of 12 is to late to educate thm i was out drinking by 13. i used to ask for a fag all the time wen i was yonger as i thought it was cool sonmy mum told me to have 1 n sed if i had 1 i had to smoke the rest of the pack lol me being niave was yerr i can do that oook lol. so me being 7 had my first puff on a fag and OMFG i never ran to the sink to spit n cough n get a drink quik enough. but my point is it worked and i never asked again. i think this has all been blown way out. obviously im not saying giving a 5 yearold vodka is aceptable but i can see bubbles point of what she would be doing as well as i can see that it was probably red like omg wtf!. every1 has their own views i guess and own ways on how they want to bring up their child so they turn out the best they can be it the same ways or different xxx

 

[Blah11]

I'm a bit at this thread to be honest. There's a reason why it's illegal for alcohol to be consumed under 18.. our bodies aren't ready for it yet. I see absolutely NO reason to give a 5 year old wine :\

 

[Blah11]

I would never in a million years give a 5 year old an alcoholic drink however small. Infact I would wait until they were 14-16. Five years old seriously... why would you do that?

I personally think it helps them appreciate it more when they are older and not kick the arse out of it

That's warped logic IMO. My mum isn't a drinker whatsoever, she has a glass of wine every month or something, and doesn't ever drink at parties or anything. Neither are me or any of my brothers I have a glass or 2 every 3 months or so if that, and I haven't been drunk in about 2 years or more.

 

[babezone]

i think every1 should jus agree to disagree lol x

 

[asacia]

I would never in a million years give a 5 year old an alcoholic drink however small. Infact I would wait until they were 14-16. Five years old seriously... why would you do that?

I personally think it helps them appreciate it more when they are older and not kick the arse out of it

That's warped logic IMO. My mum isn't a drinker whatsoever, she has a glass of wine every month or something, and doesn't ever drink at parties or anything. Neither are me or any of my brothers I have a glass or 2 every 3 months or so if that, and I haven't been drunk in about 2 years or more.

In individual cases, there are bound to be exceptions, but looking at a country as a whole - we have a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and I think something should be done. Other countries don't have the binge drinking phenomena that we have, so I think we should look at what they do. Perhaps it isn't the having wine with a meal from a young age, but that does make sense to me. The information RAFwife mentioned above, the rest of the article states that there probably isn't any harm to an occasional bit of alcohol. Maybe 5 is a bit young, but 10+ I think is reasonable.

Also, what about alcohol in food? Should we avoid that for under 18's? (A lot of people say the alcohol is destroyed in the cooking process, but someone who doesn't drink can definitely taste it!).

 

[asacia]

(I keep writing comparisons to other things, but after the confusion/annoyance I created earlier in the thread, I won't!)

 

[Linzi]

I think it's too vauge of a topic to be lumped into one category.

I have friends who weren't allowed to have ANY alcohol when they were young, and some are alcoholics, some aren't. Also, I have friends who were allowed to have alcohol and again, some now are alcoholics and some aren't.

I think it depends more on the personality of the child than the environment that they grew up in. Although that's just my 2.5 cents.

Thats pretty much what i wanted to say in a previos post just didn't work it as well.

My brother and I were brought up in exactly the same way. I started binge drinking at like... probably 13 or 14 and he didn't. I guess it just depends on who you are

Also I hate seeing kinds with toy guns, I think it's really awful. It's never a light hearted thing to carry a gun. Whether you're carrying it for self defence on the streets ir you carry it for a living. I really really hate it and think it's totally unneccesarry. But thats another thread.

x

 

[Blah11]

I would never in a million years give a 5 year old an alcoholic drink however small. Infact I would wait until they were 14-16. Five years old seriously... why would you do that?

I personally think it helps them appreciate it more when they are older and not kick the arse out of it

That's warped logic IMO. My mum isn't a drinker whatsoever, she has a glass of wine every month or something, and doesn't ever drink at parties or anything. Neither are me or any of my brothers I have a glass or 2 every 3 months or so if that, and I haven't been drunk in about 2 years or more.

In individual cases, there are bound to be exceptions, but looking at a country as a whole - we have a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and I think something should be done. Other countries don't have the binge drinking phenomena that we have, so I think we should look at what they do. Perhaps it isn't the having wine with a meal from a young age, but that does make sense to me. The information RAFwife mentioned above, the rest of the article states that there probably isn't any harm to an occasional bit of alcohol. Maybe 5 is a bit young, but 10+ I think is reasonable.

Also, what about alcohol in food? Should we avoid that for under 18's? (A lot of people say the alcohol is destroyed in the cooking process, but someone who doesn't drink can definitely taste it!).

Yes but what I was trying to say is that I don't think it makes any difference so why introduce it to them that young and risk doing them harm? Pointless IMO.

 

[charlieann]

My parents always allowed me to have a glass (although it was not much bigger than a thimble) of wine with my meal on special occasions. There was always alcohol in the house and if I wanted it I could have it. I was the only one out of all my friends who never got drunk as I had no need to go against the 'rules', even now I know when to stop and never get really drunk. I think that they way my parents did that was good as I was shown from an early age how to drink responsibly. They do the same in Italy, France, Spain and other European countries and they do not have the problems that we have in the UK with binge drinking.

Thats how it was like when i was growing up. It started off with wine/lemonade from the age of 7 at xmas. Then from 14 on the rare occasions we went out for a meal we could have the one drink. If we were at home it wasnt limited, but rarely had more then one and again only on special occasions. Our friends parents used to buy a bottle of wine for us when we slept over on friends birthdays (between 8 of us), we never abused this and were never tempted to binge drink on street corners. I went out drinking with friends in pubs from 16, but it was more the social aspect than the drinking and would often make 1 or 2 drinks last all evening. My sister turned t-total at 18 and i rarely drank when at uni, although there were several people in halls that abused alcohol.
I rarely drink nowadays, all the alcohol in the house is gifts from friends (some have been there over a year). My parents arent big drinkers either and we hardly saw them drink except family parties and xmas time.

 

[JennTheMomma]

Yes, kids are allowed to drink alcohol if given by the parents and they are in their own home. If someone suspects alcohol abuse then someone will investigate and the parents/child can get into trouble.

 

[DizzyMoo]

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6598867.stm

Another link confirming what ages are & are not allowed

 

[EstelSeren]

I wouldn't give my kids alcohol from age 5, but that's as much to do with the fact that I only drink spirits, liquers and mead as me thinking it's a little young. That said, if my OH allowed our 5 year old child to smell and taste his ale (teeny tiny sip) then I would think it's OK. He drinks mostly dark or ruby ales that look like cola so I would want my kids to know the difference as I wouldn't completely disallow fizzy drinks in our house. Plus, ales tend to be bitter, which would also disencourage them to drink it as it just tastes bad to young taste buds. Tbh, the smell of alcohol stopped me from drinking it when I was younger and I only really enjoyed some liquers and alcopops after the age of about 11. Even then I would only drink at special occasions when my parents allowed it and after 16 at parties where alcohol was allowed. I don't drink much now as I have very expensive tastes in alcohol and not enough money to buy it!! If we were at a family meal where wine is served to adults and possibly teenagers then there would usually be a few bottles of schloer or ame available for children or non drinkers, which I think is a good way of introducing kids to sensible drinking with food as it looks and tastes similar to wine and if they don't like grape juice then wine's out really. Lol!!

With regards to binge drinking, I think that, if you go by the definition that I've heard (binge drinking is drinking double or more the daily recommendation of alcohol- 2-3 units for women, 3-4 for men), everyone who drinks can easily binge drink even if they think they think they are drinking responsibly. 2 double spirit and mixer/ 4 singles is technically binge drinking for a woman and they are very easy to drink without thinking and, for some people, without even feeling drunk. I don't feel that this is abusing alcohol unless it's a regular occurance, and it especially is if a person feels it's necessary to be a regular occurance, but according to some health professionals it is even though it's not getting completely off your face and making a fool of yourself every weekend!!

Re: toy guns, knives, etc. OH collects swords and daggers. When we have children these will be on show, although locked away in display cabinets as some of them actually are rather sharp. OH also participates in battle reenactment and I hope to be involved in living history soon so our kids will quite probably be coming to shows with us where they are likely to see their father, uncle and their parents friends fighting with metal weapons and pretending to be hurt and even die. OH is also quite likely to make wooden daggers and spears for our children and teach them safe ways of fighting with them. We are also both archers so our children will be around actual working weapons and taught to respect them. If they want to start shooting when they turn 8 then we won't stop them.
I understand why people would want to protect their children from violence but I would prefer my future children to respect weapons and know how they're dangerous rather than fear them. The same goes for alcohol really: I'd prefer them to respect alcohol rather than for it to be taboo.

Sorry for the essay!!
Beca :wave: