Who buys their DC alcohol?

[Spirit]

I agree that one could be potentially drugged by anything but tea does not distort thinking as alcohol does. Surely that is the point?
I see people who have lost jobs, friends, family etc etc due to alcohol. They are not fools but alcohol makes them foolish. Even with a stark resume by me of what alcohol has cost them, the effects of addictive drugs distort reality - 'I will stop next week...I'll only drink at weekends...I will only have x units per day' etc etc.
Nobody starts out thinking I will be an alcoholic as a reasoned choice, the simple addictive propensity of alcohol does that for them.

[mystery]

Well yes, that's the reason why you worry when your child has their first drink whether they fall into the "natural alcolic" category or not. Some people if they drink a drop have to carry on to drink an ocean. Others can stop at a more sensible point more easily.

I don't drink much at all, and I don't know if my reaction is typical or not, but if I have just one glass of wine after a long period of not having had anything to drink, the next day I want another one at a similar time. But if I never drink, I don't ever desire it. Is it that addictive that even just one drink can make a difference to what I want the following day?

[scarlett]

I have more of a problem with coffee. Mine is becoming more and more like mud so I think I'm definitely addicted plus there's this place..I must have an addictive personality. Alcohol, I can take it or leave it.

[Chelmsford mum]

There's no easy answer and no one route. Hopefully we all - and they all - will get there relatively unscathed.

Meanwhile, Chelmsford mum for Queen - what dear wisdom you dispense each and every time.

Well ,not up to being crowned monarch quite yet but you can run my Presidential campaign, Milla.
In all fairness - perhaps I may have a slightly different perspective because, unusually my children are more innocent than I was at their age, due to differing social circumstances.
Overall, all we can do in this age. where there seem to be no moral absolutes is to just tell them vehemently what the ideal is and why!.With regards to alcohol there are many common sense foundations to this around health and personal safety.
Ultimately though - it is the very nature of a teenager to rebel and resist this standard.One can only hope that in the laying down of the standard,one has set a boundary within which there are still some limits. .It is within this boundary in which one's child practises a degree of rebellion.It is part of growing up for some.I did so, but still obeyed some limits and so these boundaries do matter ,even if transgressed.They set the scope for rebellion.I guess I am saying no limits in standards ,means no limit in rebellion.
So I would suggest we set those boundaries. Believe in them and expect them to be transgressed and be there to pick up the pieces, if needed.It is all we can do.Better than no boundaries at all.After all, like us, our kids have free will.Life is long and we can support them through the worst times and the best.

[mad?]

They set the scope for rebellion.I guess I am saying no limits in standards ,means no limit in rebellion.
So I would suggest we set those boundaries. Believe in them and expect them to be transgressed and be there to pick up the pieces, if needed.It is all we can do.Better than no boundaries at all.After all, like us, our kids have free will.Life is long and we can support them through the worst times and the best.

Perfect, CM, absolutely perfect.

[Sassie'sDad]

Sixty years has taught me different individuals have differing capacities for handling alcohol and that, used with respect, it helps one handle otherwise unbearable experience.

My two girls are 14 and 21. DD1 was allowed to sip wine and whisky from infancy, in her mid-teens she claimed to quite like a small glass of wine with a meal. The glass was mostly left unfinished. She thought/thinks whisky is "of the devil". At Uni she spent her first year on alcopops with her house-mates. I feared it was turning her into a poor man' s Nigella but actually this is misplaced - she is drearily sober though (like many students, I dare say) apt to have spells of depression which are not alcohol-fueled!

DD2 went one better (poor choice of word) and would at 7 sneak to my glass and, if whisky, drain it. Seven years on, life with a near alcoholic father, has reformed her. Wine is her tiple of choice: though she is big on spring water and squash.

Attending Indy has brought an innovation to 'parent's evenings'; wine is served (or a soft drink) - I am almost looking forward to the next, although it has moved to a daytime event so consumption will have to be token!

[zorro]

We went to DS's Parent's Eve on Tues and were concentrating so hard on tracking the relevant teachers down (referring to a very complicated map) that we completely forgot about the drinks table !
Mind you, when we saw DS's Chemistry teacher who informed us that DS has taken on the mantle of 'class clown' ,we should have headed straight for the wine!