Lower Drinking Age to 18? (Page 2 of 5)

If you are old enough to be required by law to sign up for the draft, you are old enough to go and get a cold draft.

Also, parents, do me a favor and expose your kids to drinking. Because guess what? If you sit there and talk about how bad it is, kids are going to go right to it because it is so bad. Bad is very appealing to an 16 year old. Do what my parents did. My parents drank around me (even asked me to go get a beer for them many times lol) and it wasn't that big a deal to me. It wasn't a rebellion or anything like that, because my parents were always drinking. And they taught me responsibility with it, because I've never saw them drunk. And guess what? Because of the way they did this I've never approached the stuff. So instead of keeping it away from them and making it the forbidden fruit, approach them with it, make it familiar to them, so they're drawn to it when they get older. It's just another thing that happens.

Alcoholism is an acquired trait. I learned it from my elders i.e. parents, aunts, and uncles by watching them drink freely at family functions. I don't care where you grew up or what your family values are, but if they involved drinking at any level the younger ones that witness what the elders do will inherit their habits. I dare any of you to debate that fact with me. bring it on cowboys and cowgirls. I've been done the recovery road and then some too, so I doubt that any of you have any pearls of wisdom to lay on me.

                                                                                                      Peace,

                                                                                                      J Dawg

Dude, my parents drank/drink all the time around me! In fact, a frequently told story in my family is when my Dad put down his beer to play some ping pong, and I finished the half can the was left, at the age of 3. I'm 16 now, still not an alcoholic. A person raised around alcohol will by no means be an alcoholic, no one is forcing them to drink. That person may very well hate the taste of alcohol. Those who are recovering have seen the bad side of alcohol; I consider it to be a social thing, like smoking cigars. You don't get trashed when you're drinking socially.

Ohiodawg13, does the term 'addictive personality' mean anything to you? Now that runs in the family. That's the reason why my 21 year old cousin refuses to drink. His grandpa, and his dad were both alcoholics, and he knows that if he starts drinking he won't be able to stop. He's like a little kid in a candy store around things that he likes, he can't stop. He's got an addictive personality, that's why he doesn't drink.

Edit: I was raised around alcohol and that's not to say I haven't drank before. I consider myself to be mature enough (after all, I'm on a blues forum) to drink responsibly. I'm talking drink a couple beers until midnight, leave the party around 3. That's is social, responsible drinking. That's not drinking to get drunk, which I understand to be the definition of alcoholism.

Please elaborate. I'm all ears.

Your parents don't necessarily have to be bad people, they can be what may be considered social drinkers, but if you live in Ca. as I do, 2 beers will get your butt thrown in jail and that constitutes one of the criteria of alcoholism. You may live in an environment where drinking beyond that limit seems the norm, but then you are probably in denial about your drinking situation. People have long accepted consumation of alcohol as a social norm, but it's a vice not unlike drugs and other compulsions. I'm not pointing fingers, I'm just stating facts. Just because its legal doesn't mean its a good thing. Deezer, I'm not raggin' on you personally it's just info we all need to process, I dig all of my forum buds and I don't want to see any of you fall prey to any vices. If I was to point fingers the first place I would point is at myself, nuff said???????

                                                                                                         Dr. Bob/J Dawg

Haha I live in Orange County. If my parents got trashed every weekend and I considered that to be normal then yeah, I'd be in denial. But they're 40 now, and these days they'll eat dinner with some neighbors and drink a couple glasses of wine, and once a month we've got poker games where the adults will tip back a few beers (I wiped the floor with them last month...made 50 bucks on a 20 dollar buy in). Now that's not to say they were out of control when I was growing up, I would say they would have people over for ping pong and a barbecue maybe once or twice a month, pretty stereotypical behavior actually.

I only consider alcohol to be a vice when put in the context of alcoholism. In fact it's been said a glass of red wine with dinner a couple nights a week is actually good for you! Technically speaking alcohol consumption is not good for you (except for the red wine thing), but neither is smoking cigars. But neither are going to kill you unless used in excess. And when I say smoking cigars I'm talking like 1 cigar at the poker games I mentioned, excess being smoking one nightly.

So what's the harm in (in my Dad's case) getting together with some guys and drinking a couple beers?

This is very true, my cousin (being my prime example) has been 'addicted' to several things, including what we'll call 'physical relations' with his girlfriend! He even told me this, once they had gotten to the physical relation of all physical relations (he's very Christian, it was a big deal) he was "like a little kid in a candy store". His words, not mine.

Yep, that´s the point.

But I also agree with Deezer - the more the parents forbid something and tell you it´s bad, the more you want to do it. So if you´re reared with little "don´ts" and a lot of "dos" instead, you somehow learn to be responsible for yourself.
Drinking gets pretty un-exciting if you´re allowed to do it anyways ....

Eva