what is with parents serving alcohol at parties for kids who are 15 and 16?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the parents present at these parties? Just from a liability perspective, I'm flabbergasted. Especially with so many of the parents being lawyers. I know these parties do exist and it makes me sad. Why on earth are people encouraging their much to young teenagers to be drinking? Study after study shows how dangerous drinking in highschool is both in the short and long term.

Is this born out of a need for the parents to feel cool? Parents who provide alcohol to minors please explain your though process. I'm a parent who will call the cops on one of these parties. It's just fundamentally wrong on so many levels to be serving 14 to 18 year old alcohol.

Why do you feel that way? Teens drink abroad.

Then they can go abroad and drink.

Americans are truly backwards puritans.

I am not against a 16 year old having a drink at dinner with their family, but I am against other peoples parents giving it to my kid and allowing kids to get hammered on their watch. I know kids who are drinking to excess every weekend and it’s parents providing the alcohol. I hope that none of those kids have a genetic predisposition to addiction.

Never mind genetics, alcohol alters the developing brain. The younger the brain is exposed to it (particularly in excess) the higher the likelihood of addiction in adulthood, particularly exposure prior to age 15. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3664402/#:~:text=Research%20has%20demonstrated%20that%20exposure,%2C%20%26%20Winter%2C%202006).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with everyone that says this is reckless behavior and I too would report it. However, it's not new. I remember attending a party as a highschooler 25 years ago and the parents were supplying the alcohol.

Learned behavior. Their kids are the ones doing it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools tend to draw a more cosmopolitan, international crowd that understands there’s nothing wrong with teenagers drinking like they do abroad.

What part of it being illegal tracks to your "nothing wrong"?

The part that recognizes also knows 9 states ban sodomy, 29 states ban same sex marriage. Don’t start about abortion. The federal drinking age was set in 1984 to 21. You can still be drafted to fight for your country at 18 and drive in many places at 16.

Teenagers shouldn’t be binge drinking. Parents shouldn’t serve alcohol to minors with parents who have a zero tolerance policy. But we’ve hired college interns who needed help getting into corporate happy hours. The law as written does not make sense in every application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m amazed by both extremes here.

I absolutely don’t think parents should be serving alcohol to high schoolers. I’ve been to 7 grad parties in the last two weeks and none were serving the teenagers alcohol.

I also see absolutely nothing wrong with mocktails or non-alcoholic drinks in champagne glasses for teenagers. I don’t think it glamorizes alcohol, to the contrary I think it shows that not all fancy drinks need to include alcohol.

I think the latter part is particularly true when adults are drinking the mocktails too. Drink this until you can have alcohol, and/or this is an alternative even when you can have alcohol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools tend to draw a more cosmopolitan, international crowd that understands there’s nothing wrong with teenagers drinking like they do abroad.

What part of it being illegal tracks to your "nothing wrong"?

The part that recognizes also knows 9 states ban sodomy, 29 states ban same sex marriage. Don’t start about abortion. The federal drinking age was set in 1984 to 21. You can still be drafted to fight for your country at 18 and drive in many places at 16.

Teenagers shouldn’t be binge drinking. Parents shouldn’t serve alcohol to minors with parents who have a zero tolerance policy. But we’ve hired college interns who needed help getting into corporate happy hours. The law as written does not make sense in every application.

Lots of hoops your jumping through to justify dangerous illegal behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m amazed by both extremes here.

I absolutely don’t think parents should be serving alcohol to high schoolers. I’ve been to 7 grad parties in the last two weeks and none were serving the teenagers alcohol.

I also see absolutely nothing wrong with mocktails or non-alcoholic drinks in champagne glasses for teenagers. I don’t think it glamorizes alcohol, to the contrary I think it shows that not all fancy drinks need to include alcohol.

I'm hoping the PP who thought that was weird was specifically thinking about the family taking photos of kids with sparkling cider pretending to be drunk. Otherwise it's so weird to think something is wrong with mocktails. I don't like them but I wish I did because I think they can make an event special and cute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have also been surprised by this - especially at the grad parties this past weekend. Not just a private school thing, though. I have my own mixed thoughts on my underage kids drinking I suppose - but I'm firmly opposed to other parents offering my underage kids drinks, especially when they know that my kid drove herself to the party. That was the truly baffling part to me - they watched kids show up in their cars and handed them alcohol.

They could be held liable and owe thousands or millions of dollars if those kids hurt anyone or get hurt.

Serving alcohol underage in the US is a DUMB thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private schools tend to draw a more cosmopolitan, international crowd that understands there’s nothing wrong with teenagers drinking like they do abroad.

Yes, all the cosmopolitan international people drink hard seltzer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools tend to draw a more cosmopolitan, international crowd that understands there’s nothing wrong with teenagers drinking like they do abroad.

Yes, all the cosmopolitan international people drink hard seltzer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools tend to draw a more cosmopolitan, international crowd that understands there’s nothing wrong with teenagers drinking like they do abroad.

What part of it being illegal tracks to your "nothing wrong"?

The part that recognizes also knows 9 states ban sodomy, 29 states ban same sex marriage. Don’t start about abortion. The federal drinking age was set in 1984 to 21. You can still be drafted to fight for your country at 18 and drive in many places at 16.

Teenagers shouldn’t be binge drinking. Parents shouldn’t serve alcohol to minors with parents who have a zero tolerance policy. But we’ve hired college interns who needed help getting into corporate happy hours. The law as written does not make sense in every application.

Lots of hoops your jumping through to justify dangerous illegal behavior.

Found the parent that drives under the speed limit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools tend to draw a more cosmopolitan, international crowd that understands there’s nothing wrong with teenagers drinking like they do abroad.

What part of it being illegal tracks to your "nothing wrong"?

The part that recognizes also knows 9 states ban sodomy, 29 states ban same sex marriage. Don’t start about abortion. The federal drinking age was set in 1984 to 21. You can still be drafted to fight for your country at 18 and drive in many places at 16.

Teenagers shouldn’t be binge drinking. Parents shouldn’t serve alcohol to minors with parents who have a zero tolerance policy. But we’ve hired college interns who needed help getting into corporate happy hours. The law as written does not make sense in every application.

Lots of hoops your jumping through to justify dangerous illegal behavior.

Found the parent that drives under the speed limit

What's wrong with driving the speed limit?

[Anonymous]

Horrible. I’d never dream of doing anything which might hurt my child (or worse) and would be furious if another parent was so reckless. I’m not a prude or teetotaler but when it comes to safety there are no grey areas and you can’t look away for a moment no matter how old. Think of the poor arlington boy killed early in the year, by a drunk teen driving. Imagine being either of those boys parents … breaks my heart into a million pieces

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools tend to draw a more cosmopolitan, international crowd that understands there’s nothing wrong with teenagers drinking like they do abroad.

What part of it being illegal tracks to your "nothing wrong"?

The part that recognizes also knows 9 states ban sodomy, 29 states ban same sex marriage. Don’t start about abortion. The federal drinking age was set in 1984 to 21. You can still be drafted to fight for your country at 18 and drive in many places at 16.

Teenagers shouldn’t be binge drinking. Parents shouldn’t serve alcohol to minors with parents who have a zero tolerance policy. But we’ve hired college interns who needed help getting into corporate happy hours. The law as written does not make sense in every application.

Your solution was fake IDs? You know there are alternatives to corporate happy hours, right?

[Anonymous]

I will not be serving alcohol to minors at parties, especially without parental permission, but I can understand why some parents want their kids to have some exposure to alcohol before they go off to college. Specifically encouraging teens to mix alcohol and swimming seems like monumentally poor judgment. I mentioned this thread to my DD15, and the hard seltzer by the pool served by a mom, and DD replied that it’s hard enough to say no to drinking when it’s another kid pressuring you, it would be even harder to find a way to decline a friend’s mom if you don’t want to offend her.

[Anonymous]

I don't judge how others choose to handle this with their own children, but it's simply wrong to serve alcohol to someone else's child without parental permission. And it's even more reckless to do so when those children are driving.