Submitted by LaVieilleBranche on August 21, 2004 - 9:54am.
ALCOHOL! MY favorite subject!
I'm not the typical American. My Quebecois father would give me wine when i was a little girl, however it was heavily diluted with water. Only for special occassions, though. When I was about 12 years old, I got to taste cognac heavily diluted with water. The older I became, the less water there was in it. By the time i was 17, I drank wine without water and and a bit of cognac without water. My parents always said that drinking is to enhance a meal, NOT FOR GETTING DRUNK. In high school, I could serve myself if I wanted a glass of wine or some cognac. My parents trusted me to be responsible, however, if i took too much, then they'd cut me off for the night.
99% of Americans would NEVER NEVER bring their children up in this manner (including my sister). They think alcohol is taboo until you're 21 years old. However, this IS the problem. Because it is a taboo item for anybody under 21, as soon as a person turns 21 the first thing they do is rush to drink legally. Being less than fully knowledgable about alcohol effects, they binge drink, because their previous (and illegal) experiences with alcohol were mostly at parties wtih other teenagers where they experimented with alcohol. Had their parents taught them HOW to use alcohol responsibly, then alcohol related deaths would go down considerably.
We've all gotten drunk a few times in our lives. However, people who have been taught how to drink alcohol responsibly are not apt to binge drink, as compared to people whose families refused them a glass of wine until they were "of the correct age."
Remember, Prohibition was NOT in Europe. It was in the United States. (My Alsacian family made wines and kirsch (spelling?) in their cellar all the time to get around that stupid law.)
I'm not the typical American. My Quebecois father would give me wine when i was a little girl, however it was heavily diluted with water. Only for special occassions, though. When I was about 12 years old, I got to taste cognac heavily diluted with water. The older I became, the less water there was in it. By the time i was 17, I drank wine without water and and a bit of cognac without water. My parents always said that drinking is to enhance a meal, NOT FOR GETTING DRUNK. In high school, I could serve myself if I wanted a glass of wine or some cognac. My parents trusted me to be responsible, however, if i took too much, then they'd cut me off for the night.
99% of Americans would NEVER NEVER bring their children up in this manner (including my sister). They think alcohol is taboo until you're 21 years old. However, this IS the problem. Because it is a taboo item for anybody under 21, as soon as a person turns 21 the first thing they do is rush to drink legally. Being less than fully knowledgable about alcohol effects, they binge drink, because their previous (and illegal) experiences with alcohol were mostly at parties wtih other teenagers where they experimented with alcohol. Had their parents taught them HOW to use alcohol responsibly, then alcohol related deaths would go down considerably.
We've all gotten drunk a few times in our lives. However, people who have been taught how to drink alcohol responsibly are not apt to binge drink, as compared to people whose families refused them a glass of wine until they were "of the correct age."
Remember, Prohibition was NOT in Europe. It was in the United States. (My Alsacian family made wines and kirsch (spelling?) in their cellar all the time to get around that stupid law.)