Drink more  

IMO Abo, kids of 10 and 12 shouldn't be drinking WKD Blue and Lambrini. I don't think you are over-reacting.

I agree. I think that is very irresponsible. I'm all for letting a kid try a sip of something at home but certainly not at 10 or 12 and certainly not a whole drink after a bottle

The problem is you can't do much about it sweetie

kids of that age have immature livers, it's why fench kids have wine watered down.

There's something terribly wrong in that I'd be calling Children's Social Care

Shocking really I'd call social services but I suspect it won't make much difference sadly.

The whole problem is teaching kids to drink responsibly. Right now we take too much of an abstinence-only tact when talking about alcohol with kids,and, just like abstinence-only education in sex, it doesn't work. Teens will drink regardless of what we say and unless we teach them how to do it in a responsible fashion, many of them will do it in an irresponsible fashion.

Letting your kids drink at home means nothing if they do it irresponsibly in the house, just like drinking away from home isn't a problem if they've been taught to drink in moderation and to be safe while consuming alcohol.

I personally think its wrong, before you know it they are on the vodka .Theres nothing wrong with a glass of wine or something at special occasions supervised. But not on a regular basis

Legally kids can drink at home from the age of 4 I believe.

There are two issues here though. Firstly I'd be unhappy about my two at that age having more than a sip or (as J said) a watered down glass of wine. Secondly - WKD and Lambrini?  I'd rather peel my own eyeballs than be seen drinking that crap. If they are going to drink at least introduce them to proper drinks.

Having said that I have to admit my daughter (13) drank a whole bottle of shop bought bucks fizz on Boxing Day - I didn't realise it had an alcohol in it but at 4% it was the equivalent of a pint of Brains Dark. No wonder she was giggling at her grandfather's jokes.  

My ten year old daughter would have people believe she drinks wine on a regular basis. She loves to tell people her nanna gives her wine. The truth behind her story is she has a quarter of a glass of wine with lemonade twice max per year. I think it is wrong for children to drink a lot of alcohol and it is fine to teach them to drink alcohol responsibly.  We have to sometimes take a pinch of salt when listening to what kids tell us, they can exaggerate.

See that's the scary thing about our culture/society she thinks that makes her cool and is a good thing as do alot of kids ie. the OP's neighbours daughter bragging.

I think 10 is waaaay to young to be drinking at all but 12, i think they will try it somewhere at some point around this age (maybe more 14.) why not teach them as they do? Obviously not on a regular basis, as jackson said their livers are still developing and alcohol early on in life can affect that development

Very true. i was watching a News report about kids on the street drinking, they were saying to the reporter that they'd had 8 cans, when in reality, I bet it was half of that, lol...they do exagerate to look 'big'.....

My daughter (12) is learning about the affects & dangers of what alcohol can do to her until her body is finished developing. She is quite harsh about it. When my son questioned when it is ok to drink my OH said 'when do I drink?' to which my 9yo answered on special occasions & celebrations.

Another thing is their mum was sitting opposite me, watching them & confirming what the girl had said. And I've just found out the son had drank (over the space of 2 hours) a large bottle of WKD blue

I think that's really bad IMO kids that age should only have watered down wine at Xmas ! And even then my son didn't like it until he was about 18!

I am teaching my daughter to be responsible with alcohol and have told her about the effects it can have. Lose control over what's safe and what's not etc. I prefer her to have a little experience and increase that very gradually and very safely over time. I don't want to ban it and have her drinking on the sly when she's older.

i have let my daughter have a glass of wine and lemonade or lager and lemonade at xmas since she was 14, she's never even finished a glass yet  i'd rather she try it at home than on the streets  i think the mother should be very ashamed abo


i also asked my daughter the other day *she's 16 this year* if she had ever been offered any drugs and she said NO

not like her mum then

i know, what went wrong

I think kids take a lot of their attitudes to drink from their parents/ family circle....it doesn't actually matter that much what you tell them, or allow them to drink, I think it's more how they see you and others use it around them on a daily basis. A case of walking the walk.

Once they hit the teenage years and their peers are getting in amongst it, is when the battle really begins ........

I am a little surprised at some of the replies here. And, I find them interesting also and will think about what you all said. However, in my mind, 10 and 12 are way too young to be drinking anything at all.I agree that it is best to teach them how to drink responsably but never at that age. It just should not be an option in any house. No wonder the UK has one of the higest rates of booze consumption if people think it is acceptable to let their children have any sort of tipple at that age.

I think it's irresponsible to let your kids see you drink/smoke and never point out the bad effects it can have. If they grow up thinking it's ok to do this without ever being told by either parent the potential risks involved then how can anyone blame them for doing it themselves? Let alone parents allowing it to happen in the home on an unmeasured basis before a certain age.

Nothing you can do about it Abo, you could report it to the social services if you felt that strongly I suppose, but personally, I wouldn't, especially if it's a friend. Can you not talk to your friend about it? It's a tricky situation cos we all parent differently and you dont want to cause offence, but maybe approach it with the view that you are just worried of the long term effects it could cause for them socially and physically.

I'm surprised too TBH.

I was forbidden most things that teens now take for granted, and it did make me a bit of a rebel.

I wasn't a lush, or promiscuous .......but probably in my parents eyes I was both.

I definitely rebelled against their views, and went my own way.

I got drunk, and tried soft drugs.    Slept with a few blokes before I finally settled down, but I always knew what I was doing , and who I was doing it with.

If I hadn't tried stuff out before........I'd always have wondered

 In so saying......I'm the mother of three teenagers, and it drives me nuts  wondering what they're up to

I think the downfall of all young drinkers is the alcopop, when I first began to drink there was no sweet tasting drink, you drank lager black, lager and lime or cider, you could'nt afford shorts, England is its own downfall with its cheap drink and drunken children....

My parents were very sophisticated and allowed us the odd glass of red wine, whilst holidaying in France etc.

Never did me any harm!

I think most of us dabbled in all of that when we were growing up Stoory. The difference is though, you did it cos you were never allowed to do it. But you didn't carry on doing it, probably because you knew the risks involved. My point was kids who grow up in a home where certain things are permitted or seen on a daily basis will never look at them in a rebellious way, and will just think it's the norm if the dangers are not pointed out to them.

Suppose it comes down to the parenting tactic of 'Do as I say, not do as I do'. I could never understand it growing up seeing 2 parents smoke, but I wasn't stupid enough to mess with my mother, plus it was a respect thing aswell. Out of 3 siblings I'm the only one who smokes, me and my sister both drink socially (alcohol was never a part of our childhood - both parents teetotal).

Zaccly. In moderation! But you didn't become a raging alcoholic by the time you were 15 did you (maybe you did, but somehow I don't think so )

My boy has tasted bacardi breezer and loved it, but he damn well knows if ever I catch him drinking at his age what the consequences will be. Plus, as a mum, if my son wanted to try drugs or anything I'd rather he tell me so we could find out why he wanted to do it. Probably living in a dreamworld I know, cos kids will be kids. But some scum round here offered him heroin when he was 10 and the first thing he did was come and tell me, I think that's cos I've been very open with him about the effects of alcohol, drugs and nicotine from an early age.

We were always allowed the odd half glass of wine, and a sherry or something else vile at christmas... I reckon my parents would probably have relaxed into letting me drink responsibly as an adult at home by about 16...if I had given them a  chance...

By 14 we were all going and getting paralytic on the fields...  (binge drinking is nothing new)...

My daughter is now nearly 17... she has to ask, but I will let her have a couple of bottles of lager... or share a half bottle of wine with her.

Whilst her mates play drinking games with vodka & schnaps and stuff, she drinks a couple of lagers instead... in other words she drinks responsibly when out.... at the moment.  Seeing some of the others really drunk helped.... seeing the drunken rows over nothing, the puking, the crying... she didn't want to be that girl.

Also... her thinking the little maglite on my keyring was a mini breathalyser that I would use on her if I thought she was lying helped me bluff the truth out of her!

 But... I am with Stoory... I am out of my mind with worry at the mo... shes at that age when the world is opening up to her... and my power to restrict is diminishing.

its huge if they can tell you about it... but god Karma... its harder to deal with than you think it will be!

I think I have just had to deal with a one off on that front...  I had to fight every instinct in my body not to go into a flat spin of rage and retribution...

Erm... well.... I drank as much as I could get hold of, at any opportunity, whatever it tasted like and had blackouts, so........

Seriously, out of six of us, one sister was quite sensible, but the rest of us drank like fish and we ALL smoked. Two brothers only smoke socially now, two sisters have given up, me and my other sister are still smoking like chimneys. I think it's our genes...  

I am absolutely cacking myself about the next few years. At the moment, I still have control, but I know when he gets to late teens that will be it and I will just have to hope he is sensible.

Although it's different to when we were kids Dits, cos we've done most of it we can see the warning signs, know when their pupils look like pins or frying pans and what it means, basically just that alot of our generation are a hell of a lot more knowledgable than our parents were. My mum didn't have a clue bless her, and I think it was because of this that I took advantage and was dabbling in loads of different crap. Felt guilty as hell over it though for years afterwards and even more so now I've got a child of my own. To me personally, alcohol and cigarettes are a hell of a difference to drugs. Yes both can become addictive and pose fatal health risks, but hardcore drugs would be harder to deal with for me I think.

If the only alcoholic drink thing on this planet was dog shit do you think many would be drinking?....

Are we allowed it in a sandwich?

I had bets with myself you'd be the first to answer....

I have 4 children, the 2 eldest are soooo different.  They have all been brought up the same.  My youngest although, has a completely different outlook on life, basically he doesn't give a shite, smokes, soft drugs, alcohol, etc., and why? because he likes it, nothing to do with the way he has been brought up.  You can say your kids won't do this and won't do that, but believe me if that is what they want, then thats the way they live.   BTW we have always instilled in them the dangers of smoking, drinking etc. and I have worked so hard with this boy it's taken all the energy out of me, I have nothing else to give.