Blog Post: “Teaching” Kids to Drink

Here in the great State of Texas, there is a not-so-great law. This law states that minors can be served in their own homes with alcohol provided that is supplied by a parent or legal guardian of the child.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard parents of many underage kids say, to some effect, “We are teaching our kids to drink responsibly at home.”

Um, what? No. Oh no. As Julia Roberts famously said in Pretty Woman, “Big Mistake. Huge.”

There is no research that proves that parents who serve their underage children are able to drink “responsibly.” In fact, this study shows that parents think that providing alcohol to teens at home decreases the risk for future problems, but in fact – the opposite is true. Parents that provide alcohol to minors actually increase the risk for future drinking problems.

I’ve had many clients come to my clinic and recount times in high school their parents served them alcohol. “It was always not a big deal,” they said. The irony is – and that I often point out – that they are sitting in my office dealing with some sort of substance-use issue.

I spoke with Dan Nichols, MA, LCDC, a former colleague and now Clinical Director of Lifetime Recovery, an in-patient rehab facility in San Antonio, and asked him his thoughts.  “The only positive that comes to mind with parents serving minors in the home is risk-reduction with regards to operating a motor vehicle,” he said. “The others are all negatives. There are a lot of messages that are sent to the child, like they endorse underage drinking, and that it’s ok.”

When a parent introduces alcohol, Nichols says, the message is clear: “It basically is saying to the child, here’s how you should drink,” he said. “Next time, these kids will most likely be doing it outside the home.”

Nichols states there is a bottom line that parents often don’t think of when prematurely introductions alcohol to minors. “Alcohol is an addictive substance,” he said. “It’s not tea. It’s not Kool-Aid. So be aware that it can become habit-forming. People are not addicted on first exposure to alchohol, but sometimes there is an adverse effect, and sometimes there isn’t. But why take that chance with your 15 or 16-year-old kid?”

So, please, parents, please, pretty please, think twice before serving your underage children alcohol. To me, it crosses the parent boundary into the party-buddy zone. It blurs those lines, and Nichols is right: why take the chance?