What is, in your opinion, the cause of so much teen drinking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Drinking is so much worse now.

I live in the bar area of Clarendonand there are tons of adults 22-30 stumbling around completely incoherent—even in the middle of the day.

Ambulances came 3 times this weekend on our street for adults that wouldn’t stop throwing up, wandering in the middle of the street, etc., passed out on the curb. I saw one topple over in a driveway. My kids saw a 20-something woman fall off the drunk trolley and get dragged before her friends noticed and I’m yelling “man down” at 2pm on a Saturday in front of Whitlows. And this is not isolated event.

I am 50 and did bar crawls (they were a few times per year—not almost every month like now)—and parties in my youth and it was an incredibly rare occurrence for things to ever get that out of control.

I have College age nieces and nephews and the stories they have—kids in rehab are eye-opening.

I have read several articles that surmise it’s the helicopter generation lashing out, coupled with social media.

I tell ya, my tweens have been scared straight watching drunks handcuffed, drunk drivers wrestled to the ground. They don’t see it as glamorous. I remember thinking “oh that never happens as a teen” because I lived in the suburbs and didn’t see the negative aspects—just the fun. It’s easy to reinforce how bad it is when you watch it out your window.

Honestly, I think that the raised drinking age has backfired big time. Young adults at college used to be able to go out to a bar and buy themselves beers. Now they are forced to go to underage drinking parties, sneaking around like HS kids. HS kids and even some parents figure - well if the young college adults are drinking illegally, what's so bad about HS kids drinking, too.

There is a difference between a 15 year old HS sophomore and a 20 year old college junior but the law treats them both as underage kids. When these "kids" actually hit 21 and they can finally go out to bars they go a little wild with that new taste of freedom....but unlike college freshman, these older "kids" have established tolerances for alcohol.

[Anonymous]

^^ I’m 47 and the drinking age was 21. It’s been this way for ages. Not the reason for the serious documented spikes of the past few years.

I was old for my grade and it was halfway into my junior year of college before I was legal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ I’m 47 and the drinking age was 21. It’s been this way for ages. Not the reason for the serious documented spikes of the past few years.

I was old for my grade and it was halfway into my junior year of college before I was legal.

I'm 51 and I was grandfathered in and able to drink beer and wine at the age of 19. I actually got to see the before/after of this law. I could go to a fraternity party and show my ID. My friends born just months later than me needed fake IDs....

Trust me, there is a difference in the way being legal age vs underage makes you feel. I could go to a bar and buy a beer legally, my friends couldn't do that and had to rely on guys in the bars to buy them beers.

When cops came to fraternity parties to check IDs, I (and other legal aged party goers) stayed out in the main party room for the cops to card while the underage ones had to go into crawl spaces to hide.

[Anonymous]

^Oh, and since it was legal for me to drink, I didn't have to hide it so I did my fair share of over drinking at times and doing stupid things. I learned from that and when I started to work I knew something about my tolerance level for alcohol.

Now, there are young adults who may be going to bars for the first time as legal age 20 somethings. They are inexperienced with alcohol or they are used to only drinking in hiding - as much as they can while they can. So when they hit legal age and go out to bars, they get a bit wild.

[Anonymous]

How many people actually wait until they are age 18 to vote? (most)

How many people wait until they are legal age to buy cigarettes? (Most. In fact, most people never buy cigarettes)

How many people wait until they are legal age to drive? Most.

How many people actually wait until the age of 21 to consume alcohol? Most do not wait until they are 21 to consume alcohol.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you for all the insight into underage drinking culture. For what is worth, I don't drink. I might have half a glass of wine at Christmas. I don't have any alcohol in my house. When my kids went to Europe with me, they had a chance to taste a bit of wine like I did when growing up. I do see the point made by a pp, that it is possibly more about appearing cool than about really wanting to drink. I also agree that it is absurd that 18 year old can buy a gun, serve in the military, but can't buy a beer. But, law is the law, and having teens and being friends with parents of teens, law is much less tolerant of parents who either allow this or turn the blind eye to it. The fact is that I can go to prison if teen sneaks alcohol into my house. It seems that I just can't win. The kid I caught with it, looked me in the eye when arriving, said he had nothing, didn't bring anything, and then lied that he found the drink on my table. That is how vigilant you have to be, see that kid is drinking something you didn't offer and demand to take that drink to make sure what it is. When I was growing up, we were offered a sip here and there of wine and beer, out of six cousins only one went on to drink somewhat more than acceptable. Out of so many extended family and my friends, none of my friends have this social drinking habits. There is one aunt known for sipping too much, but I suspect that was the only way she knew how to cope with her husband. I think I am a very naïve parent, but vigilant, and these teens have not only cut short my DD's party, they put me in potential danger with the law, and lied and all this for what? The consequence was that they didn't end up having a nice party. Honestly, I am so sad about this.

[Anonymous]

OP here again. I want to add, that the examples of my family and friends are just that. There are plenty of people who are serious alcoholics back home and in every country, I suspect. I am not saying that people in Europe don't have serious alcohol problems. Many, many do.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 teens in HS and I'm lucky I guess because they absolutely do not drink and we've never had a kid come into our house who has ever shown an interest in our liquor cabinet. Some of this is the company that your kids are keeping.

That said, if I had a 20 year old "kid" home from college for Thanksgiving break and I walked in to the family room and saw him sharing a 6 pack with his friends....it would #1) Seem like a reasonable thing for people their ages to be doing 2) I would recognize them as young adults, not HS children. 3) I would not want them drinking in my house anyway because it is not legal for them to do so - which I don't agree with but the law is the law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a whole study for you, OP

https://report.nih.gov/NIHfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=21


And while it is still a problem, teen drinking has actually DECLINED quite a bit.

https://www.responsibility.org/get-the-facts/research/statistics/underage-drinking-statistics/

When I read the OP, I was like WHAT? Kids drink WAY less than when I was a teen in thr 90s. Jesus, who here didn't have a near death experience with Boons Farm- Strawberry Hill, Mad dog 20/20 (Orange Jubilee anyone), or some if those Mickeys malt liquor? And how did anyome even stomach aristocrat??

I'm pretty laid back with my teen and drinking. He can drink in the house, it has never been taboo. He's just not interested. Hes not a nerd, but is a good student and plays 2 varsity sports. On Saturday night he had about 5 friends over, they all came with their cords, computers, and game consoles...loaded up on junk food at Giant and played video games all night in my basement. This is all after playing a brutal football game in the driving, cold rain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for all the insight into underage drinking culture. For what is worth, I don't drink. I might have half a glass of wine at Christmas. I don't have any alcohol in my house. When my kids went to Europe with me, they had a chance to taste a bit of wine like I did when growing up. I do see the point made by a pp, that it is possibly more about appearing cool than about really wanting to drink. I also agree that it is absurd that 18 year old can buy a gun, serve in the military, but can't buy a beer. But, law is the law, and having teens and being friends with parents of teens, law is much less tolerant of parents who either allow this or turn the blind eye to it. The fact is that I can go to prison if teen sneaks alcohol into my house. It seems that I just can't win. The kid I caught with it, looked me in the eye when arriving, said he had nothing, didn't bring anything, and then lied that he found the drink on my table. That is how vigilant you have to be, see that kid is drinking something you didn't offer and demand to take that drink to make sure what it is. When I was growing up, we were offered a sip here and there of wine and beer, out of six cousins only one went on to drink somewhat more than acceptable. Out of so many extended family and my friends, none of my friends have this social drinking habits. There is one aunt known for sipping too much, but I suspect that was the only way she knew how to cope with her husband. I think I am a very naïve parent, but vigilant, and these teens have not only cut short my DD's party, they put me in potential danger with the law, and lied and all this for what? The consequence was that they didn't end up having a nice party. Honestly, I am so sad about this.

I don't know what European country you could possibly be from. If you look at alcohol consumption by country per capita we are number 48 in the world with just about every single country in Europe consuming more alcohol than we do per capita. I'm American but I've been to Europe plenty and let me tell you something I don't know how those people are not all pickled by now. I remember in particular being in Germany and these people started drinking at midnight and then were still at it at 5 in the morning, like it was normal.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption_per_capita

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a whole study for you, OP

https://report.nih.gov/NIHfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=21


And while it is still a problem, teen drinking has actually DECLINED quite a bit.

https://www.responsibility.org/get-the-facts/research/statistics/underage-drinking-statistics/

When I read the OP, I was like WHAT? Kids drink WAY less than when I was a teen in thr 90s. Jesus, who here didn't have a near death experience with Boons Farm- Strawberry Hill, Mad dog 20/20 (Orange Jubilee anyone), or some if those Mickeys malt liquor? And how did anyome even stomach aristocrat??

I'm pretty laid back with my teen and drinking. He can drink in the house, it has never been taboo. He's just not interested. Hes not a nerd, but is a good student and plays 2 varsity sports. On Saturday night he had about 5 friends over, they all came with their cords, computers, and game consoles...loaded up on junk food at Giant and played video games all night in my basement. This is all after playing a brutal football game in the driving, cold rain.

If the boys had expressed interest in having a few beers, would you have given them a 6 pack of Bud to go along with the junk they were eating? I somehow highly doubt that. You may not care if your HS son had wine at Thanksgiving dinner or a small glass of champagne on New Years Eve but you almost certainly wouldn't be comfortable with him lounging around with his pals, knocking back a few beers after a hard game...

I didn't drink as a HS teen beyond the special glass of holiday wine or champagne. The HS kids that I hung out with weren't into drinking.

But when I got to college age that changed. I would say that most college age kids drank at parties when I was in school. And studies suggest that that hasn't changed.

[Anonymous]

^All the non drinking kids in HS that I hung out with as a teen did drink alcohol once they were out of HS, btw. Every single one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a whole study for you, OP

https://report.nih.gov/NIHfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=21


And while it is still a problem, teen drinking has actually DECLINED quite a bit.

https://www.responsibility.org/get-the-facts/research/statistics/underage-drinking-statistics/

When I read the OP, I was like WHAT? Kids drink WAY less than when I was a teen in thr 90s. Jesus, who here didn't have a near death experience with Boons Farm- Strawberry Hill, Mad dog 20/20 (Orange Jubilee anyone), or some if those Mickeys malt liquor? And how did anyome even stomach aristocrat??

I'm pretty laid back with my teen and drinking. He can drink in the house, it has never been taboo. He's just not interested. Hes not a nerd, but is a good student and plays 2 varsity sports. On Saturday night he had about 5 friends over, they all came with their cords, computers, and game consoles...loaded up on junk food at Giant and played video games all night in my basement. This is all after playing a brutal football game in the driving, cold rain.

If the boys had expressed interest in having a few beers, would you have given them a 6 pack of Bud to go along with the junk they were eating? I somehow highly doubt that. You may not care if your HS son had wine at Thanksgiving dinner or a small glass of champagne on New Years Eve but you almost certainly wouldn't be comfortable with him lounging around with his pals, knocking back a few beers after a hard game...

I didn't drink as a HS teen beyond the special glass of holiday wine or champagne. The HS kids that I hung out with weren't into drinking.

But when I got to college age that changed. I would say that most college age kids drank at parties when I was in school. And studies suggest that that hasn't changed.

No, I would not do that, I could get in huge trouble. Am I morally opposed? No. Would I "allow" my son and a friend to drink some beers at our house if his friend had like minded parents-yes (and there are like minded parents out there). My son and his friends are simply not interested. The seem to be into sports, video games, and girls.

Also, my son has uber on his phone linked to my credit card. He has unlimited, unquestioned access to uber for him and his friends if even a drop of alcohol (or God forbid drugs) are in his system, but he's never even had to use that.

I think it's grest, but it definitly was no where near my HS experience and what kids, and in particular athletes were getting into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a whole study for you, OP

https://report.nih.gov/NIHfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=21


And while it is still a problem, teen drinking has actually DECLINED quite a bit.

https://www.responsibility.org/get-the-facts/research/statistics/underage-drinking-statistics/

When I read the OP, I was like WHAT? Kids drink WAY less than when I was a teen in thr 90s. Jesus, who here didn't have a near death experience with Boons Farm- Strawberry Hill, Mad dog 20/20 (Orange Jubilee anyone), or some if those Mickeys malt liquor? And how did anyome even stomach aristocrat??

I'm pretty laid back with my teen and drinking. He can drink in the house, it has never been taboo. He's just not interested. Hes not a nerd, but is a good student and plays 2 varsity sports. On Saturday night he had about 5 friends over, they all came with their cords, computers, and game consoles...loaded up on junk food at Giant and played video games all night in my basement. This is all after playing a brutal football game in the driving, cold rain.

If the boys had expressed interest in having a few beers, would you have given them a 6 pack of Bud to go along with the junk they were eating? I somehow highly doubt that. You may not care if your HS son had wine at Thanksgiving dinner or a small glass of champagne on New Years Eve but you almost certainly wouldn't be comfortable with him lounging around with his pals, knocking back a few beers after a hard game...

I didn't drink as a HS teen beyond the special glass of holiday wine or champagne. The HS kids that I hung out with weren't into drinking.

But when I got to college age that changed. I would say that most college age kids drank at parties when I was in school. And studies suggest that that hasn't changed.

No, I would not do that, I could get in huge trouble. Am I morally opposed? No. Would I "allow" my son and a friend to drink some beers at our house if his friend had like minded parents-yes (and there are like minded parents out there). My son and his friends are simply not interested. The seem to be into sports, video games, and girls.

Also, my son has uber on his phone linked to my credit card. He has unlimited, unquestioned access to uber for him and his friends if even a drop of alcohol (or God forbid drugs) are in his system, but he's never even had to use that.

I think it's grest, but it definitly was no where near my HS experience and what kids, and in particular athletes were getting into.

Yes, I think that HS kids tend to be involved in a fair amount of structured extracurricular activities including sports. A lot of their socializing takes place at school and within the context of those activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. I want to add, that the examples of my family and friends are just that. There are plenty of people who are serious alcoholics back home and in every country, I suspect. I am not saying that people in Europe don't have serious alcohol problems. Many, many do.

What country in Europe?

Europe is a big place with many different countries, cultures and drinking cultures.

Methinks you are romanticizing Europe and your youth quite a bit.