Why Adolescents Should Not Drink Alcohol at All and Why You as a Parent Should Never Provide it for Them!!!

Though it may be tempting to be your kid’s “best friend” or the “cool parent” by supplying the beer for an underage party, think again!  There are factual reasons why the drinking age is 21.

It’s against the law for kids to drink.  If you tell them its OK to drink as long as they drink at home, you are, in effect, telling them it’s OK to break the law under certain conditions.  Is this really the message you want to give to your adolescent?  Further, if you as a parent provide alcohol to minors you could be arrested and charged under the Dram Shop Law.

Kids don’t drink socially.  They drink to get buzzed or drunk.  Drinking to get drunk is dangerous in many ways.  Emergency rooms are full of kids who over do it and end up with alcohol poisoning.

Kids get addicted quicker than adults do because their bodies are still growing.  It takes an adult 5-15 years of regular drinking to become physically addicted.  It takes an adolescent 6 months – 2 years.

It’s an adolescent’s “job” to test limits.  If we set the limit at abstinence, hopefully our kids will go no further than experimentation.  However, if we allow social use of alcohol, our kids are likely to test beyond this limit into alcohol abuse or even addiction.