No you CAN'T get your kid drunk!

[blas]

I don't think a happy medium will ever be reached with the drinking age. Someone is always going to object, and drunk driving will still be a problem (but then again, there are lots of drunk drivers and people on their 3rd or 4th DUI that are well over 21) no matter what we do.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

My parents actually encouraged me to drink as a teenager. They're both medium beer drinkers (still a LOT of miles to go before alcoholic--my dad is actually incapable of developping a dependance on anything. Something about a piece missing from his chest, anyway.) and of course, thought booze would loosen me up and make it easier for me to socialize.

Beer, bleh. Wine, Bleagh. Drinking once a week like my mom does? I'm not that thirsty.

I do like the ocasionnal Tia Maria and blue raspberrytini, but that's cuz they taste like candy. I have one like every 3 months. That's my reward for not killing my store manager.

Permitting your child to do anything they want (considering they're not toddlers--you want them to respect you BEFORE playing the "you get to do it if you wanna" game) actually has good results.

I was allowed to smoke (didn't do that) drink (very occasionally) get odd piercings (NO! that hurts!) Tattoos (got one on my fanny) get my hair dyed (not yet), the whole shibang.

Where's the fun if you're allowed to do all this?

[MystyGlyttyr]

I dunno, maybe it was because she was a librarian, but my mom's methods were a little different.

I would get a little sip of wine or whatever, and then she'd open up our medical guide to a picture of a diseased liver and say "This is what this stuff does to your insides." Ew. That was pretty dramatic for a four-year-old but it obviously worked.

Then again, it could also be because I was Catholic and didn't completely understand Communion...not to mention I was the only Catholic in my school so I didn't have anyone to discuss it with, aside from my misinformed friends. "Man, they give you alcohol in CHURCH??" So, yeah, as far as I knew, I was drinking once a week so what was the big deal?

I think the main thing, though, is that I have control issues. I wouldn't WANT to get drunk because then I wouldn't be in complete control of myself and lord knows what sort of violence I might unleash in THAT case.

[Andara Bledin]

As a former police officer, I take umbrage at your supposition that we would try to put blame on the place of business.

Take umbrage all you want, but I've known people who've gotten backlash for things they had no control over or even awareness of.

Case in point: I have a friend that lives in New Mexico. She does babysitting to pick up extra money. She went with her charge (who happened to also be her niece) to visit one of her friends. While in the main room of the house, braiding the kid's hair, the cops raid the place. It turns out that the owner of the place (the other friend's boyfriend) has a small stash of personal use marijuana tucked away in the bedroom (someone ratted him out).

So, the upshot? My friend gets charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor because she had the audacity to go to a place that had some weed tucked away in the back of the house that she had no way of knowing even existed. She didn't even know he smoked much less that he had a stash on the premises.

And before you ask, the friend in question is very straight-laced and wouldn't have approved if she had known, which is probably why they never told her he smoked.

^-.-^

[Namrepus221]

Acctually there are several dumb laws in texas when it comes to booze. As well as in several other states.

But since 1978, by federal law, you can brew your own beer. Also Texas law says you can brew up to 200 gallons a year for personal consumption..

[MrSunshineState]

Acctually there are several dumb laws in texas when it comes to booze. As well as in several other states.

But since 1978, by federal law, you can brew your own beer. Also Texas law says you can brew up to 200 gallons a year for personal consumption..

A friend of mine once told me that clerks in Texas are not required to accept out of state IDs in regards to the purchase of alcoholic beverages.

[myswtghst]

I'm with Shironu on this. My parents didn't restrict me much, and only what they had to, and I turned out alright. My mom might not love my 8 piercings, 3 tattoos and some 20-odd previous hair colors, but I'm also one of the only kids on the block I grew up on who now has: a) a college degree, b) a clean (no arrests!) record, c) a good job, and d) my own place. Guess I turned out alright.

And I think that Banrion had it exactly right. The parent was an SC for buying booze for someone underage in the bar. It is his own choice to allow his underage son to drink, but doing it in a public place is irresponsible and, IMO, @$$-hole behavior.

[kibbles]

ITA with what everyone has said here. He was a SC (sucky customer) but that doesn't make him a SP (sucky parent)

[hecubus]

I don't think a happy medium will ever be reached with the drinking age. Someone is always going to object, and drunk driving will still be a problem (but then again, there are lots of drunk drivers and people on their 3rd or 4th DUI that are well over 21) no matter what we do.

I've noticed that, if your local newspaper happens to publish court records, that the vast majority of people convicted of drunk driving are substantially over the age of 21. I've always thought it made no sense to have a drinking age of 21 instead of 18 given that fact.

Heck, when I became "legal," the drinking age in Wisconsin was 18. It didn't seem to cause that many problems, rather, I think the courts were not as clogged with underage drinking arrests as they are now.

I never like the "bi-level adulthood" that we seem to have in this country. It makes no sense to be able to join the milirary, vote, sign contracts, etc. at 18, but not be able to drink until you're 21. C'mon, pick a number for cryin' out loud!

[friendofjimmyk]

Okay, I didn't look to see if you post where you live, but in many states it's actually legal for parents and guardians to purchase their children drinks. In Ohio and Texas, two states where I was a server that worked in an establishment that sold alcohol, if the parent or guardian ordered the beverage AND served it to them, it was legal. Meaning, as a bartender or server, if they ordered from me, they had to carry it from the bar or when I served it to their table, I had to serve it to the parent and they give it to the minor child...

Now, on the flip side of that - it was still up to the establishment to allow this as all establishments have the right to refuse service to anyone. Two of the establishments I worked in - one in each state acknowledged that this was the law but refused to allow minors to drink regardless.

[Bella_Vixen]

My dad and I would always have a shot of Irish Mist for his birthday.

Best. Stuff. Ever. I have a bottle of it on the "bar." (I have one of my bookshelves set up with Irish Mist, Bailey's, and some generic Bailey's. My mom even got a set of proper pony glasses.) I don't think I cracked a bottle in a month. Drinking just isn't that fun for me, but if I get the urge, I can at least do it at home.

[JustaCashier]

Slightly OT, my cat's father seems to have developed a taste for beer. He'll jump on the endtable & drink the beer left on the rim of the can.

Heh, when I first read that sentence, I read it as ".......my father seems to have....."

My first thought was

Mike

[Lace Neil Singer]

My parents always let me and my brothers have sips of wine or beer; I hated wine, but loved the taste of beer. Sometimes I'd have a shandy as a kid, or a Kaliber (non alcoholic beer); never did me any harm. I've gone out and gotten smashed loads of times, but never in a way detrimental to my health, ie alcohol poisoning, or even to the extent that I was sick. Once I'd had enough, I went home. End of.

[Hon'ya-chan]

Can't bars get closed down for selling beer to a oh a MINOR?

In the OP's case, thats a tough call.

I know my Local Liquor Commission are complete idiots when it comes to certain circumstances. Case in point: They took away one establishments License all because the Owner was "sleeping" on a couch in the establishment (And she wasn't drunk), while another got a slap on the wrist. Mind you, they were fighting a wrongful death lawsuit over a drunk driver who got hismelf killed and took out the minivan he plowed into killing a woman and one of her kids. The allegation was the bar "overserved him' Alcohol after he was kicked out of another establishment because he was drunk. The kicker was that the Drunk Driver's wife was a co-plantiff in the lawsuit with the Husband of the dead woman and kid in the mini-van!!

[Rapscallion]

Multiple ages? Over here, you're an adult for bus fare at fourteen, you're allowed to have sex at sixteen, you can't buy a porn mag until eighteen, sixteen is also for smoking (currently - may be increasing), can't drive until you're seventeen, eighteen for porn and beer, twenty-one used to be the 'key of the door' as in the age you were allowed to buy a house, but now it's good for HGV licence, becoming a foster parent, or a member of parliament.

Whoopee doo.

Rapscallion