Permission to drink alcohol on school trip?!

[Proud_Dad]

Or even have an evening meal without alcohol - it's
not obligatory just because you're eating surely.

From the sound of push-pull-mum and Amber's tales a small glass of wine with dinner should be the least of your worries!

[kenyancowgirl]

I agree with others who have said that, by keeping it in the open, the kids/young adults, (who, in all honesty, even if your dc doesn't drink, others will!) will not be tempted to overdo it, in secret, and the teachers can monitor everything and make sure nobody goes daft. It may even put them all off having a drink as they might feel weird about it.

Also, the school are, sensibly, covering themselves - you would feel significantly more aggrieved if they all went off and then you heard that students were getting paralytic, behind the staff backs - or even drinking behind staff backs - and you would hear!! At least this way, it is all above board. You may be underestimating your dc - they may feel very able to say "no" if they don't want a drink, despite their friends, in the same way that many more youngsters these day feel able to say "no" when offered a cigarette.

[mad?]

I think this is standard once they get to 6th form and I guess it is a way of 'controlling' it. I agree with other posters as well that it is good for them to get used to the fact that others will be drinking, even if they don't want to. But, and it is a BIG BUT, I think it is so sad that they feel the need to endorse alcohol in this way. Why shouldn't those that drink have to get used to the idea that others don't? Lessons in tolerance and acceptance cut both ways. From what I have seen of the average 16 year old's idea of fun it would be great if they were free from the pressures of conforming in this way whilst under the supervision of school.
I say this as a parent of a 16 year old who spent New Year's eve cleaning up other people's sick (claimed she knew which product would not damage the Persian carpet concerned as she had done some high class baby sitting lately where the parents told her what to use if the kids were sick...which they were, as the parents obviously knew they would be ). She also spent and half term on a school trip where, when she refused a glass of wine or beer with dinner the teacher suggested she try a cocktail. When she returned she was quite happy as it was an RS trip and there were sufficient muslim children (and yes, they are still children) for her to hang out with when they had their hour of 'free time'. Why can't we as schools and parents show our offspring that there are other ways to have fun? Incidentally, DD's room mate spent the whole time panicking about whether her parents would see facebook photos of her drinking and also, when DD suggested that perhaps it might be a good idea to lay off the popif that was the case, got totally stressed about what people would think of her for being such a .... if she didn't drink. Our children are under huge pressure drown themselves in booze nowadays and I think the odd chance to have fun without all that would be a great school trip.
Sorry to rant but there you go, sauvignon in hand of course
ETA... it would be nice if for once, eg on a school trip, the pressure was not on those who choose to say no, nor on those who feel forced to say yes, but on those who are ruling the roost and dictating that fun=alcohol .

[stevew61]

How times change. At my modest comprehensive school sixth form discos had a bar and in the days before VHS ( dvd or netflix) we had a film club with a bar. Saw some great films, for once the older folk were wise , learnt a lesson three bottles of Newcastle Brown good, five bad.

DS1, off to uni later this year, gets high on coffee avoids alcohol, that is good, but I do worry ( parents job) that he might try alcohol under peer pressure, best he is prepared at home either way, drink or decline.

[southbucks3]

I got put on report on my French a level history trip for enticing a group of young of French scooter boys to our hotel...I was merely sitting on the balcony with friends, not encouraging them at all one of them threw me his t shirt, and the history teachers found out and confiscated it as evidence! Now the girls do all the chasing! We were also allowed wine, although from memory they watered it down, we also had plenty of free time after dinner to get up to mischief, but my friends nd I were good girls.

I did go bonkers at uni though

[scary mum]

Interestingly the expensive sports tour at our GS states up front that no alcohol is allowed. I'm not sure about the over 18s (not many of them go). They deliberately go on a dry airline, or at least did a couple of years ago. I suspect things are relaxed a little once they are there.

I went away on a trip in the 6th form. Drink and other substances were consumed by some.

[Amber]

I went away on a trip in the 6th form. Drink and other substances were consumed by some.

Posh private school see? 'Other substances' were out of the financial reach of those of us languishing in 'sink comprehensives'. In fact so were the trips in the first place, so it never arose.

I took myself off to Berlin at 16 to stay with my pen friend and despite what to me seemed quite a racy lifestyle, not one of her friends drank anything stronger than chocolate milk. Didn't stop the customs officers at the airport on the way home turning my bags inside out though - must have been the second piercing in my ear I acquired out there. Wild eh?

[kenyancowgirl]

I went to boarding school - drinking was an expulsion issue. I spent most weekends in the pub. A friend reminded me of one memorable time we decided to ask my house master if I could stay at her aunt's with my friend for the weekend. We were fairly inebriated..I knocked on the door and got a little distracted talking to the friend...until I saw her horrified face! Turned round to see that I was, in fact, knocking on his shiny bald head... Fortunately he just told us to get off site asap and come back on the Monday morning... See, Amber, what the benefit of a posh private school education gives you?!!! In my case alcohol and cigarettes galore. I was quite refined at Uni as I had done a lot of growing up in boarding school - away from my parents.

The Europeans have got it right, in my opinion - they don't have this strict no, no, no to alcohol that we have here. Children have sips of wine, watered down, from an early age - if they want it - in restaurants at night, where it is perfectly acceptable for children to be. They have a significantly lower problem with youth alcohol issues than the UK. We hope to raise our boys to respect alcohol and not restrict alcohol to the point that they feel the need to binge in any way. I do get the point that there should be entertainment enough without alcohol, for three days, but I also know, having seen friends, who didn't have the benefit of my mis-spent youth, going absolutely scarily loopy at University, not just with alcohol but drugs as well, as it was the first time they had been able to do what they wanted. Sadly, alcohol is a fact of life nowadays and strategies now need to embrace that and try different tacts.

[mad?]

Sadly, alcohol is a fact of life nowadays and strategies now need to embrace that and try different tacts.

I agree wholeheartedly. Except...I think it would be really good if kids were given the chance to learn that if they don't like it, they are not abnormal, nor ruining everything, nor a loser, schools trips would seem a good place for this to happen. Equally I think they should learn very early to clean up their own vomit.

[Amber]

Sadly, alcohol is a fact of life nowadays and strategies now need to embrace that and try different tacts.

I agree wholeheartedly. Except...I think it would be really good if kids were given the chance to learn that if they don't like it, they are not abnormal, nor ruining everything, nor a loser, schools trips would seem a good place for this to happen. Equally I think they should learn very early to clean up their own vomit.

I do agree very strongly with you and really wish there were more parents like you. I am also the parent of a non-drinking 17 year old who feels pressure to conform but finds the whole alcohol scene deeply unappealing. I think it is very sad that a majority of teenagers these days seem to equate having fun with not only consuming massive amounts of alcohol but also with the uninhibited s exual behaviour which often follows, even in public places. Parents often seem to either give the nod to this or turn a blind eye, but I agree with you that it would be really healthy if the non-drinking option were endorsed in a similarly high-profile way to the 'get smashed, s*** anything that moves and have a great time' message which seems to prevail among so many.