Wednesday, November 08, 2006

how can teens experiment safely with alchohol?

I think there's great value in European attitudes to alchohol, where it is something regularly offered to children if adults are drinking some with a meal. In many european families, parents or other relatives would expect to help their children train their palettes - distinguishing between grapes and learning the different scents and flavours. This would model wine drinking (and Scots similarly teach teens about whisky) as something to be savoured rather than a dangerous drug to be experimented with safely.

Also - what better place to first experience the physical effects of half a glass of wine - and to develop theories about how to behave under such circumstances - than in the home?

alchohol being "forbidden fruit" contributes to potentially dangerous attitudes to drinking it IMO

2 comments:

Claire said...

Well my five yr old already likes cider and red wine in an egg cup when we drink at the odd meal but everyone else is shocked to the core that we 'let' him :)

My dh already imagines that he will be the one to buy pot and make my son a green cigar when requested as a teen. Gulp. I can't imagine that far ahead :lol

Claire said...

PS) Am glad you posted these bits of yours from the board, good to read!