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The Problem with 21

By alan ⋅ February 28, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Known as the Superbowl for print advertising, the latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition found its way into my hands last week. Normally the scantily clad beauties that grace these pages take the majority of my attention, but this year something else caught my eye. It wasn’t 5′10″, didn’t have a perfect smile, woman-defining curves, a great “personality”, or the last name Miller. No, I was distracted from the pretty pages by an ad from Pernod Ricard USA. If you haven’t heard of Pernod Ricard USA, you have most certainly heard of or consumed their products:

• Beefeater®
  
• Jameson®
• Chivas Regal®
• Kahlua®
• Malibu®
• Stolichnaya®
• Seagram’s Gin®
• Wild Turkey®

The ad, which urges you to log on to their “Accept Responsibility” website, is part of a new campaign to discuss the issue of underage binge drinking. If you ask me… it’s a bullshit scare tactic.The ad itself is pretty simple, but the message is effective. A mere outline drawing of a glass contains these words:

 “Underage drinking doesn’t start with a drink. It starts with an excuse. We drank when we were that young and we turned out ok. It’s fine if he takes a sip. My son knows the limit. These kids are under so much pressure. I say let’s cut them a break. I don’t mind if he’s drinking with his friends. Just as long as they’re doing it at our house.”

This hits very close to home for me. I grew up in a strictly European household and was raised a lot differently when it came to alcohol than my peers. Alcohol was never proclaimed as an evil in the world; but rather as one of life’s simple pleasures. The idea that it could be enjoyed often as long as it was in moderation and responsibly became the accepted mentality for not only alcohol, but living life as well.

 I was allowed small amounts of wine at the dinner table as young as 12 years old. Mind you, I wasn’t pounding bottle after bottle, but drinking the equivalent of 1/4 serving for most normal wine drinkers per dinner. This again, was not a constant, but on special occasions or in a rare instance when I behaved myself.

 As I grew older, my parents never locked the liquor cabinet, and they had one of the biggest, most tempting, home collections around. They trusted their own parenting and they trusted me. And for all intensive purposes, they did their job right. I can only reference a handful of times where I “broke” into their stash for some vodka, or when I wanted to show of all the rare European liquors and farm made schnapps’ to my friends. Even then it wasn’t for much more than a drink or two. I was 15 and had just started to drink socially, but what the hell else should I be doing but causing a little bit of a ruckus?

When it came time to drive, I already had all the lessons I needed from my parents. They continually drove home the point that drinking and driving was the fastest way to accidents, jail time, and funerals. All of it helped to shape a healthy “Fuck You!” to drunk driving. Besides, by the time I turned 16, there wasn’t a need to experiment and get supremely hammered, I had been introduced to the sauce quite some time ago. So there was never a real urge for me to drive to some party and get totally sloshed. But at the same time, you have to be realistic, 16 year olds are going to get trashed… it’s what they do and I, while already having some alcohol experience under my belt, was not exception. For new drinkers (especially teens) turning into that annoying “I’m sho druank!” bastard is a right of passage.

 Anyway, as a countermeasure to me taking the chance and driving home, my parents ingrained the idea of using taxi’s, or simply calling them if I happened to be drunk and needed to get home. They promised they would be a lot more understanding if I called for them to pick my drunk ass up from a party instead of bailing me out of jail or IDing my corpse at the morgue. So that’s what I did. And despite the evil stare down and scorning I got for 1) Not planning ahead  (they are Swiss Effeciency Nazi’s) and 2) drinking too much, it was totally worth not driving home drunk.

If you look at the numbers, the amount of alcoholism per capita is considerly lower in the Western European states- where the way I grew up is common, than it is here. There is also the fact that at 18 years old, you can drive, vote, marry, sign contracts, be tried as an adult, and die in a war for your country, but you can’t have a beer with dinner and enjoy a cocktail after a long day in the office?!

Now it’s obvious that this won’t work for every family. I got lucky and happened to have some of the most awesome parents around, but there are many who will simply refuse to accept a more progressive parenting approach. Regardless, raising your children with the idea that alcohol should be respected and understood, rather than blindly feared is only going to lead curious teens to try it more quickly, get hurt, or hurt someone else. Before teens can get their license, they have to be taught how to drive.  Drinking is no different, there is a right and wrong way to do it. And like most things, being taught how to do something right goes a long way.