Coffee for Teens

[Anonymous]

We're not coffee drinkers, and we have a rising senior in the house. Senior year is rough with a full schedule and lots of outside responsibilities. I bought a leakproof mug so he can bring tea or coffee to school.

Does your teens drink coffee? How often? Mine started drinking tea last year to help stay alert during his afternoon classes. He says a lot of his friends drink coffee. We're not against it - just don't know much bc we don't even own a coffee maker.

[Anonymous]

One of mine drinks coffee, just one cup a day in the morning. No caffeine after that.

[Anonymous]

Mike drinks monster but I would greatly prefer coffee which has some arguable health benefits and a lot fewer chemicals. Even if they start off with very sugary coffee, it’s the kind of thing that’s easy to scale back. When I started drinking coffee in college I added so much sugar but now I just use milk.

In HS I drank a coke or two every day.

My younger teen doesn’t drink coffee regularly but if she’s really wiped out she will have one shot of espresso in a lot of milk with a shot of vanilla syrup.

[Anonymous]

Mine go for C4, Celsius, or the occasional Starbycks frap in a bottle.

[Anonymous]

Neither of my kids, 15 and 20, drink tea or coffee. I drank both at their age: not a lot, just a small cup of tea in the morning and possibly an espresso after lunch, but this was in Paris in the 90s. Today in the US, teens walk about with large Starbucks cups filled with exceedingly sweet concoctions that might or might not contain caffeine. I feel the main draw is the sugar. My kids definitely like sugar, but after years of me being aghast at American consumption of sugar, they know to restrain themselves on the Starbucks, bubble drinks and soda front.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't your teen get annoyed having to tot around a coffee cup all day? Consider getting a disposable one or suggest he just drink it prior to school and leave it in the car.

[Anonymous]

At least with coffee you can mix with half (or 1/3 or whatever ratio) decaf.

[Anonymous]

One of my kids started drinking coffee probably at 14 or so, just one cup a day. She just finished college and is still at that level. The other one doesn’t like coffee although he does often grab himself a Red Bull from the convenience store more often than I would like.

[Anonymous]

My 13yo does not. However, we were staying with friends with teens in Ireland in the spring and theirs both drank coffee every morning. In Europe a lot of teens do and start young as well. I think it’s too young to “ need” coffee but I also think we have a lot more crap in our food here than they do there so who knows.

[Anonymous]

My oldest started occasionally having coffee freshmen year of college. He’s a health nut and read about its health benefits. He has it maybe 2 times per week. No energy drinks or the like.

Youngest- rising high school senior. No way in h@ll . He already has soooo much energy. Sugar affects him crazy. If he has juice he’s bouncing off the walls. We can’t imagine him on caffeine!

[Anonymous]

Coffee seems better than a ton of other energy choices. I didn’t start till college, but before that often had soda or slurpees… so coffee would have been better, lol

[Anonymous]

OP here... thanks for all the replies!

Any ideas on how to naturally boost energy from about lunchtime til 3pm? This time does not work well for my DC, esp if the class/teacher is very boring. I hate the thought of him nodding off although I'm pretty sure other kids are sleeping too.

After he gets through these next couple months, I think it's time for the some etiquette training before heading off to college. lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here... thanks for all the replies!

Any ideas on how to naturally boost energy from about lunchtime til 3pm? This time does not work well for my DC, esp if the class/teacher is very boring. I hate the thought of him nodding off although I'm pretty sure other kids are sleeping too.

After he gets through these next couple months, I think it's time for the some etiquette training before heading off to college. lol

Let him have a cup of coffee. It will help with this and, as a pp noted, does have additional health benefits. Just make sure it's not after 1pm.

[Anonymous]

I would let mine drink coffee, but I’d be afraid it’d make them have to poop at school. Horror of horrors.

[Anonymous]

My teens started with Celsius (my DH bought) but I squashed that. Do not want them drinking “energy” drinks regularly (Celsius has 2-3 times the amount of caffeine than a cup of coffee).
They occasionally have one - just not daily.
They also occasionally have coffee. It is more cream than coffee the way they make it!