IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO ALLOW UNDERAGE KIDS TO DRINK AT HOME?

I've often heard parents say they'd rather their kids drink at home than someplace else. The logic is that at least they're safe at home and parents know where they are. They're not someplace unsafe, or driving impaired. It all makes a certain amount of sense.  

But ...

If you're a parent and are wondering whether to serve your kids alcohol at home, here' s some interesting American research:

Four years of US government data shows that most underage youth get alcohol from home, and about a third were given it by their parents or guardians, according the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Drawing on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) conducted annually 2006 through 2009, SAMHSA estimated that about 709,000 U.S. adolescents ages 12 to 14 currently drink alcohol.

Over 44,000 teens ages 12 to 14 participated in the surveys - about 6 percent said they drank alcohol in the previous month.

Nearly half of the youth surveyed either got their alcohol from a parent or guardian (about 30 percent), or from home (about 16 percent). The rest got it from an unrelated adult or another underage youth.

All that is really just telling us what we already know - teens are drinking alcohol in large numbers. And they're getting a lot of the alcohol they're drinking at home. But is it a good idea to give them alcohol and to support them drinking it at home?

Here's a really interesting finding that makes one wonder:

"People who begin drinking alcohol before the age of 15 are six times more likely than those who start at age 21 and older to develop alcohol problems," said SAMHSA Administrator, Pamela S. Hyde. "Parents and other adults need to be aware that providing alcohol to children can expose them to an increased risk for alcohol abuse and set them on a path with increased potential for addiction."

The message?

If parents and other adults can find ways of encouraging kids to wait as long as they can before they start drinking, the better off they will probably be. That's why educational, support and prevention programs for children are so vitally important for their future health and happiness.

Not only do they help change a family's legacy, but these programs can be of direct benefit to children. If a child has the predisposition - genetically, socially or psychologically - to developing the disease of addiction, delaying first use is a sure-fire way of helping him or her avoid getting it. 

Here's another way of looking at it: there are many risk factors that come into play when a person comes down with the disease of addiction. One of them - and it's a big risk factor - is early first use.
Many times I've stood in front of large groups of people who are in inpatient treatment for addiction and asked to see raised hands in answer to this question: 'How many of you had your first drink under the age of 14?" 
The hands raised usually made up from two-thirds to three-quarters of the audience.

Not a scientific survey to be sure, but it gives one pause when trying to decide whether allowing and encouraging kids to drink at home, where they are certainly safer than in a bar or in the bush, is really such a good idea after all.