Ummm... DUH!?

America is JUST finding this out after the rest of the world knows this?

Well, by extension if you have your kids take cocaine with you at home, then you won't have to worry about them getting it elsewhere!

So many drunk drivers, failed livers, broken homes (physical abuse with alcohol involved) and their solution is 'Well, people are going to do it so teach them to do it at home.'

You know what else is a good idea? Don't bring it into your home. Studies have also shown that parents who drink are more likely to have kids who drink. Parents who smoke are more likely to have kids that smoke.

I heard about this on the local news...if your children are curious about drinking, then supervising and educating them on the dangers and their limits is wise, but going out every weekend and buying them 40s to get loose with is kind of foolish. Everything in moderation, right?

I've often advocated lowering the drinking age to sixteen, and raising the driving age to twenty-one.

That way kids are responsible drinkers by the time they learn to drive.

couldn't agree with you more... Wait, no that's a lie.

Are you seriously suggesting that you just ignore the issue and teach abstinance from alcohol? Seems to work with sex so why not?

Chances are they are going to try alcohol at some point. So why not teach them how to be responsible with it? The issue with drunks is that they are not drinking responsibly.

If this were any other issue education would be an expected course of action, but because it's something that is generally frowned upon (despite most people doing it) we should avoid it?

I wonder how many underage drinkers would still be alive if someone took the time to teach them how to drink responsibly instead of letting them figure it out much too late.

What's better is to teach your kids Not to drink. Nobody 'needs' alcohol. The body isn't biologically predisposed towards craving it. It's not the same as sex. In the case of alcohol, if they don't have the first drink they won't crave it.

No, ignoring a problem doesn't help. What does help is not teaching your kid that it's OK TO DRINK!

The excuse of 'everybody does it' is crap. Everybody does it so we'll just let them poison their livers with this Family activity. Everybody does it so we'll teach them how to waste their money on booze 'responsibly'?

A RESPONSIBLE drinker is the one who chooses not to drink. They don't bring it into their homes with kids around. They don't encourage their kids to start drinking at a younger age.

It's child abuse. You're killing your kid by introducing him to a dangerous poisonous substance that he or she will see as 'OK' because Mom and Dad think it's perfectly fine for them to drink.

You aren't teaching them responsibility. You're shirking your responsibilty to your family. It's easy to toss your kid a beer and make sure he starts out slow. It's harder to have a little self discipline and show your kid that 'Not everybody drinks or NEEDS to drink to have a good time.'

When my ex decided to give my boy a 'glass of wine' I was furious. His statement of 'it was just wine' frustrated and angered me even more. She is actually teaching him that it's acceptable to drink alcohol.

It's not. Not with my family. I don't know any smokers who didn't wish later that SOMEBODY would have stopped them from taking their first cigarette. I've never seen an alcoholic say "If only my parents would have given me my first beer instead of a college roommate!"

Give your kids crack. That way they don't get it off the street. It's also an addictive, mind altering substance which harms the body. But hell, at least they'll be using it responsibly!

I don't know what kind of redneck backwoods moron came up with the 'teach your kids to drink' mantra but they need to visit a few teenage alcoholics and see what kind of damage teenagers have done with drunk driving.

How is it that someone who is as intelligent and articulate as you are can sit back and say "Well, let's give the kids alcohol to teach them how to drink" and not wince at the sheer stupidity of the idea?

Guess what? It's ok to drink.

Yup. It is. Just like its ok to have sugar and red meat and sex and coffee and cookies in bed. All things in life can harm or kill you if you don't practice moderation. Even water. So why not teach moderation?

Not everyone that drinks will become an alcoholic. Not everyone that smokes will become a Smoker. Not everyone that eats cake will become morbidly obese. Not everyone that drinks water will overdose of hyper-hydration.

We teach our children not to eat the whole damn cake in one sitting. We should teach them the same about the bottle of rum. And all life's little pleasures.

Just because something MIGHT be dangerous in certain situations is no reason to abstain from it. No one would ever do anything.

Your crack analogy is straw man fallacy at best.

I'll drink to this.

Tragluk, i don't know what personal demons you're wrestling over there, but alcohol is not to blame for alcoholism any more than McDonalds are responsible for obesity.

I was raised in a European family setting and wine was had with every evening meal and afternoon meals at the weekends. I never saw my parents drunk or even tipsy and i was allowed a half glass of wine occasionally from about 12-13. Despite my username and AV (lol) i've never had a drink problem or been a "binge drinker" as it where.

When my grandmother died, I inherited a 200 year old set of crystal and the page describing every piece. There are small glasses in both the red and white styles described as "children's wineglasses."

It has been traditional for youngsters to drink corresponding diminutive amounts of alcohol in many cultures. Both my partner and I have been raised that way and are raising children that way and there are no alcoholics in the lot.

I guess Dad started me a wee bit too early.

growing, up my parents were always very open when it came to alcohol. It was normal to see beers or booze at get togethers and birthday parties. If we were curious as to what they were drinking they'd let us take a sip, more than half the time we'd wrinkle our noses and ask them why they were drinking yucky stuff. I liked beer I remember and my parents always let me take a sip or two but that was it and quite frankly I never cared to drink any more.

During my teen years, when all my friends would go out of there way to acquire alcohol; I'd just kinda shrug and let them go on their missions. I never cared to do so myself, alcohol was just something people drank at social events, and quite frankly I didn't see the big deal.

I can count the times I've gotten wasted on one hand. I'm thankful for the way my parents raised me around alcohol. It just makes sense.

Why? Because it's hard to refute? Crack is addictive. Alcohol is addictive. Cocaine taken in moderation doesn't kill you. Where do you think the term 'Coca-Cola' came from? Look up 'Route 36' some time.

But then, what's the point of drinking alcohol?

To be social? I know how to be social without needing to lower my inhibitions. I know how to be social without poisoning my liver or killing brain cells.

Can somebody explain the point of drinking alcohol and why it's necessary for a child to do?

200 years ago we didn't have the same technology for keeping water safe to drink. It wasn't uncommon for a person to go home on lunch break and have some beer with their meal, then return to work.

It was a different time. We didn't know the long term effects of alcohol on the body. We didn't understand that drinking was actually harming us.

And WTF, Alcohol doesn't cause Alcoholism? Seriously? What does? Candy? Does Water cause Alcoholism? Are Alcoholics out binging on soda-crackers? Tell me.. if Alcohol isn't the problem with Alcoholics then what exactly is?

Addictive personalities. Oh and an underlying predisposition to alcoholism and other behavioral problems

I'm sure you're not dumb but you're coming across that way here guy. If alcohol was the *cause* of alcoholism then everyone who drinks would be an alcoholic.

Your crack analogy is bulls**t because there's no such thing as a "moderate" crack head. People can have a beer or two on occasion or daily and have no ill effects. In fact red wine has therapeutic properties in moderation.

I'll try again, saying that alcohol *causes* alcoholism is like saying cars cause RTA's. They don't. Driver error, lack of concentration, inexperience and a whole host of other factors cause RTA's, cars themselves don't.

Seriously guy, your "alcohol is evil and causes this and that and causes alcoholism" is ri-dic-ulous

Aah Moderation. That is generally the key.

although I muse say, I am worried about parents that take their kids to Mcdonalds all the time than those who give kids a little wine.

Kids WILL drink, if only to learn what the big deal is that everyone tells them not to.

I just prefer not to drink, so my daughter has never seen me take a drink of alcohol. As soon as my daughter turned 16, she and her friends got stupidly drunk. One was admitted to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. At that point, I decided to monitor her drinking and help her learn how to set a limit. She had no idea a person could go from mostly sober to stinking drunk in that one extra pull from a beer.

Now, my daughter is 18, rarely drinks and is more often than not the designated driver for her friends, the ones whose parents forbid them to drink when they were at the experimenting stage.

I'm proud of my daughter for making good decisions. I gave her the information and opportunity to learn instead of just saying "NO you can't".

Not necessary, just extremely likely.

An inability to moderate behavior. It's the same problem with nymphomaniacs, coke heads, and couch potatoes.

I won't go down the crack analogy path because you're comparing apples to fingernail clippings.
Many people were taught not to listen to rock and roll, not to eat sweets, and not to drink coffee or smoke cigarettes... But guess what? People do. You don't just take a sip and become instantly addictive. You don't even get tipsy from a sip.

Honestly I'm amazed that you think you can just teach them not to do it and expect them to never try it. Seriously, that doesn't work. No really, it doesn't. I can't tell you how many friends I've had growing up who were taught not to drink who got s**tfaced and ended up vomiting all over themselves. I wish you the best of luck in teaching your kids not to drink it, truly I hope it works out for you. I don't hold a lot of faith that it will, but I hope that it does. If everyone did what their parents told them to we would not have the population that we do and hardly anyone would watch TV.

It is inevitable that at some point every person in America will have the opportunity to accept or decline a drink of alcohol, and even more likely that there will be multiple instances of this... Eventually nearly all of them will try it, whether their parents talked to them about it or not, and almost undoubtedly without their parents being present... Moreover, the majority of them will try it before they reach the legal age of consumption... Personally I'd rather know that my kid is aware of how to moderate and pace themselves; or in more general terms: how to not be the kid that throws up all over him/herself and the floor, or gets a bad hangover the next day, or (heaven forbid) dies of alcohol poisoning, or decides to drive and gets in a horrible accident that kills or cripples them for the rest of their lives.

It's a dangerous thing, there's no denying that; but as with anything teaching moderation (as opposed to abstaining) is the most responsible route.

I'd also rather have a kid who knows that if they do get drunk that they should call me to come pick them up rather than get behind the wheel or get in a car with someone who has been drinking; that I won't be disappointed or upset with them for drinking, that I won't scold them or embarass them or make them in any way ashamed of what they've done. Because if a child feels they will disappoint or otherwise land themselves in trouble for drinking, they'll try to hide it.

Of course. Makes sense. Because prohibition worked so well.

Why did they ever end that? Forbidden Fruit isn't even a phrase in common usage, is it?