Thursday, March 20, 2008

Drinking at a young age


Eslocura's comments contained a thread about drinking - what to drink, when, etc. And my comment leads to this post.

I started drinking when I was around 6. My dad would drink highballs (bourbon and ginger ale) and I always wanted a sip. It got so that he would give me my own drink - obviously 99% ginger ale and 1% bourbon or something like that. And over time it was no problem to try beer or wine. I really feel that relaxed attitude helped me growing up. Alcohol wasn't this forbidden substance that I had to get at all costs.

Now, that is not to say I didn't do some things wrong. I still to this day cannot drink peppermint schnapps - I won't go into detail on that one except to say that puking out a car window is no fun. And Alabama Slammers can really get you majorly drunk fast. And once I remember coming home from being at a friend's house where we had some vodka, and sitting across from my mother at the kitchen table pretending I had done nothing, thinking that I was set because vodka is a clear alcohol. My parents aren't very confrontational so I didn't get in trouble.

But overall, if I had kids, I'd like to raise them the same way. Trouble is, likely one day the cops would appear at my door and I'd be in jail for enabling underage drinking. Which would be crap, but again, could happen. When did you start drinking?

10 comments:

Susan said...

7:45 am on a good morning.


Kidding kidding...

I guess mine was along the same lines. Believe it or not, I really didn't drink much until I was around 22.

...I think everyone has a peppermint schnapps story.

Nate said...

I was a true tee-totaller until I was 21. And then it was all downhill from there.

Squirrel said...

Not a drop till I was a month shy of 30.

Belle - A Beauty livin with her Beast said...

I had my first drink at 15....ok ok I was majorly drunk at 15....drank ever since

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I agree. I started older around 11 or 12, with some sips of wine, and then eventually my own little thimble. By the time we were 16-17 we would have our own drinks (usually beer) whenever my parents had a party. The mystery or the forbidden aspect was gone. But then, 18 is still the drinking age in PR, and outdoor drinking is the de facto way of drinking (I do miss that!). I remember at 12 going to the supermarket to buy my mom some beer (I doubt that would happen now.)
The other thing my parents did is to let us taste alcohol at an early age, but something gross, like beer, which I do like, but I do think that it is an acquired taste. (Don't try this with a fruity drink like piƱa colada or it will backfire.) A sip of beer when we were 5 discouraged us from trying again in a long time. But it really backfired with my 2 yr old son! He saw us drinking beer one day and thinking that it was juice he asked for some. I let him taste it, think that this would cure any request for beer for a long time, and boy what a mistake. He was ready for more. I had to fall back into the "this is for adults only" mode. Maybe peppermint schnaps would have been more successful.

NoRegrets said...

OK, we run the gamut here. Not surprising!

heather said...

other than a few stolen sips here and there nothing until i was about 13-14 and then it was never at home. to this day i don't think i've had anything alcoholic to drink in front of my mother other than a few months ago at texas roadhouse. i had ~a~ margarita. and had to listen to her self righteous bullshit for a week after that. (do you really think you should be getting drunk in front of your daughter, blah, blah, blah...and on and on and on...)
i had ~1~ freakin drink! with dinner! no wonder i drank like a fish whenever she wasn't around and i could get ahold of anything. not only was it forbidden, but a single drink evidently will send you straight to hell.

Churlita said...

When I was a kid, my uncle would make us hot toddies when we were sick. I don't have to remind you that I'm Irish, do I?

I drank once in high school and went through a stupid drunken period when I was in college. I stopped altogether for a while and now I drink socially. I might go a month without drinking and then drink a few times in a week. So, I'm inconsistent. So what?

dmarks said...

My dad mixed 7-up and whiskey. I would often get the remaining inch of 7 up at the bottom of the can. But never the whiskey.