I imagine questions like this one are kinda overasked, if that’s case, I’m sorry.
What I’m asking more specifically is, what drinks do young people get started with, in what context, and at what age – since I seem to understand that laws regarding underage drinking are very strict in the US.
For example, where I’m from most people have their first drink at 15 or 16, and it’s often either wine at a family gathering or beer at a bar/restaurant (which is legal, provided it is being sold to an 18+ yo, who holds responsibility in case of accidents). What’s it like in the US/in your state?
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It usually starts with kids drinking their parents alcohol or an irresponsible adult buying alcohol for them.
A friend of mine had to be taken to the hospital after drinking so much of his parents liquor that he got alcohol poisoning. He was around 14 or 15 at the time.
The first time I got drunk was on my 18th birthday in senior year of high school. Me and my friends went to a privately owned market that usually doesn’t ask for ID and just bought a bunch of beer lol. Fake IDs are also very common here. I didn’t start going to parties in high school until senior year, but every party I went to had alcohol there. I never asked where people got it, but it was probably either bought from places that don’t ask for ID or just bought with a fake ID. I still remember the bonfire we had a few days before graduation where one girl was so drunk she could barely walk and almost fell into the fire a few times.
I had a friend who found alcohol at his house. He tried it, brought some to school, and I tried it.
I was 13 at the birthday party of my cousin’s 1-year old son. Every table had jugs of beers on it. It was fairly easy to take them and drink it.
Got really sick afterwards. Live and learn.
One of the more common ways (at least when I was young in the 00s) was at high school parties. Some kids had parents who’d supply the alcohol, or older friends/siblings/cousins. The drinks of choice were mainly beer or like Smirnoff ice.
When I was about 15, I went to a friend’s party and they had “wine coolers” — known now as alcapops — with only about 3% alcohol. We actually didn’t drink excessively, just enough to socialize and *think* we were drunk when we weren’t.
And actually it is legal in Colorado to drink with your parents at any age, unlike some states. But most parents don’t do it.
One of my earliest memories is of my dad letting me try the whiskey in his glass. I was maybe 4, it was traumatic.
I had a really shitty father.
Then my sister bought me wine coolers when I was 16 and i was buying alcohol myself by the time I was 17.
None of this was legal but it’s certainly not uncommon except the dad letting a tiny child drink whiskey part
My grandmother used to let me have an occasional sip of her wine when I was a kid.
I see more and more that parents are taking time to teach their kids. Most of my friends will let their older children (16 and above) have a glass of wine or a beer with the family.
They are also pretty zero tolerance about drinking and driving. And getting drunk and stumbling in is also not allowed.
I don’t know if there is a perfect way, but the general attitude seems to be that if it isn’t such a big deal, maybe kids won’t overdo it when they start drinking.
I swiped a glass of champagne at a wedding when I was thirteen. That’s when I learned I don’t like the taste of alcohol.
My first drink was probably when a friend’s father gave my friend and I a sip of his beer. I would guess we were around 10 years old, but it was just a sip.
Before we hit our early teens, we were drinking schnapps. We’d find someone to buy it for us, which used to be much easier 40+ years ago.
By the time we were 16, we were drinking pretty much anything and everything. Not only was it easy to find someone to buy us liquor, but some of my friends looked 21 and never had any problems. If they ever did, we just went to a different liquor store.
I’ll add that I won’t condone our behavior, but none of my friends grew up to become alcoholics and none ever had a problem with liquor or drugs. We didn’t even hardly mess with marijuana, in fact.
I’d say it starts with the family gathering or the friend gathering where someone gets their hand on alcohol to bring. It gains a lot of traction in college, where some people go from not drinking or drinking sporadically to drinking every weekend.
1. In some states, it is or was legal to for a minor over a certain age to have alcohol in a private residence with parental presence and consent.
2. Many times it’s someone irresponsible bought beer for a house party or the kids snuck one from their parents.