Should You Let Your Child Taste Alcohol?

When I was growing up we were allowed to have alcohol. Of course, we weren't handed the bottle and told to drink up. Instead, they would mix a little bit of wine with some sprite or seven up (more soda than wine), and we only had this treat at Christmas and Thanksgiving. We were taught at a young age that while alcohol wasn't entirely verboten, it wasn't something to be taken lightly. As we grew older, we were allowed to drink our wine without something mixed in. Then gradually we were allowed to introduce wine coolers, beer, and occasionally cocktails. We were not allowed to go out when we drank, and we were told that our under aged drinking wasn't a secret.

In high school, while most of my peers were out getting drunk, arrested, and even having their stomachs pumped, I was able to stay completely focused on my school work. I wasn't interested in going to keg parties, and I also surrounded myself with friends who felt the same way. While my friends might come over and have a drink, they were never permitted to drive home afterwards. We were taught to handle ourselves responsible, and none of us have the types of stories that some of our unfortunate class mates have.

The theory behind this was that if we were taught, from a young age, the do's and don'ts of alcohol, we wouldn't have problems with it in the future. Also, they believed that if we were drinking at home, then we weren't out drinking and getting into trouble. Because of this, I am happy to say, that there are no drinking problems in our family. None of us have ever been pulled over for drunk driving, and to my knowledge, we all remember the events that took place while drinking.

When a child thinks something is forbidden, they equate that with being something fun and only for adults. Because children are in so much of a hurry to grow up, they can often yearn to do anything just because they are told not to do it. If we spend more time explaining things and less time screaming no, it is possible that society would see a don shift in the amount of drunken driving accidents and thus a decrease in needless drunk driving deaths. While I don't think we should tell our children to have as much as they want, I don't see anything wrong with letting them have a taste.