Letting your kids drink & curfew - survey and opinions please

[Mayhem]

I quit having a curfew after I graduated high school even though I lived at home.

My parents never provided me booze, I had to get that on my own.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[westtexducks]

Not an old fogie. I didn't have a curfew in highschool but I wasn't out chasing women going to parties or drinking either we would regularly be up till 2-3 in the morning killing rabbits. My dad knew that and I knew better to not mess up a good thing either. But I have never been a drinker got drunk maybe 3 times in college and decided it wasn't worth the time money or headaches of dealing with. Don't like hanging out around people drinking either, always thought it was a dumb expensive habit. But I digress.

I keep alcohol out of my house and will not be raising my children around it. When asked about it will explain all of the cons behind why it is a bad idea and let them try it if they want but I plan on setting an example of being able to live a perfectly happy normal life alcohol free. Most of it is disgusting anyway. And hopefully I will raise them to have enough integerity to be able to not fall into peer pressure and say no. I am not against having a curfew but if I didn't it would be a one and done and it would have to be earned first with a curfew strictly kept for awhile first before giving a little leash. But like mentioned above very rarely does anything good happen after midnight at least not in town.

This honestly is a big pet peeve of mine. You have one generation of alcoholics rasing the next generation and it is a never ending cycle and half of them in college think since they come from a rich alcoholic family it is ok and then you have the rednecks that just think it is normal and been doing it since 13. And then we perpetual push this lifestyle of being drunk or buzzed when 80% of songs on the radio talk about being turnt up and high or drunk. We have a society have a ridiculous dependence on booze and it really is sad. Then most people's college experience consisted of being drunk all the time and doing stupid ****. Has to start at home to change it and no it is not just kids being kids.

Sent from my E6910 using Tapatalk

[mikeyb_23]

I think your rules are spot on. I had a curfew when I was in high school, didn't drink when I was in high school though.

[Tjciranni]

I know my parents did not let me drink underage, and when i went to college i went hog wild and ended up losing my baseball scholarship because i would stay out late partying and not wake up for class in the morning. I had to learn the hard way about drinking. I think the midnight curfew is a generous time to be home by.

With my kids i know my wife has said multiple times that she would rather have them drinking in our home where we know what is going on and not driving anywhere. We wont have to worry about that for at least another 15 years or so hopefully.

My opinion would be just do what you think is best for your kids. Your here for them as a parent and a friend, but first off a parent. No one will make the right decision every time, you just have to pray about it and leave it up to the Big Man.

[CSanders]

No way I would give me kids beer at the age of 17. Did I drink in high school, yes but my parents did not allow it. The kids that were allowed to drink and stay out all night are the one's that ventured into drugs or ended up in accidents and jail.
I'm 32 and thankful my parents gave me a midnight curfew. They used to say, "nothing good happens after midnight" They were right. My kids wont stay out past midnight either.
Stick to your guns, they will thank you later in life.

[TA_Fab]

My dad gave me 3 rules:

Be on the field every Friday night

Don’t get anyone pregnant

Don’t go to jail or if you do I’m not coming to get you.

I like to think I turned out alright. I would imagine when I have kids I will do something similar.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hoghunter69]

nothing good happens after midnight for teenagers, keep the curfew and the alcohol can wait

[riverbowman]

Go with your gut. Man I cannot believe how many parents openly provide alcohol to teens now days... like parties. Not just a few kids at a time. And all while the teens are posting videos of it all over social media.

We have the same thing as mentioned above where teachers can't go to parties for their students because the parents are providing them (the kids) alcohol. Liability obviously doesn't enter the equation for these parents.

[hooligan]

I had a curfew through high school. At 17 when I graduated my parents told me to be an adult and go to school or the military but I wasn't living at home any more.

I wasn't allowed to drink, caught hell from them whenever I did get busted. Parents aren't there to be their kids friends, you're there to keep them in line.

[hogslayer78]

No way I would give me kids beer at the age of 17. Did I drink in high school, yes but my parents did not allow it. The kids that were allowed to drink and stay out all night are the one's that ventured into drugs or ended up in accidents and jail.
I'm 32 and thankful my parents gave me a midnight curfew. They used to say, "nothing good happens after midnight" They were right. My kids wont stay out past midnight either.
Stick to your guns, they will thank you later in life.

Amen��! My 21 yr old that lives at home and commutes to Sam still has a curfew unless he staying the night somewhere and we know where he is at! He isn't wild and never was given alcohol in high-school by his mother or me. Did he drink some? Im sure he did but it wasn’t provided by me. If a kid goes off to college and fails miserably because he can't put the booze down it's not mom and dad to blame.

If a parent wants to give there child alcohol than that's on them and there choice. Another parent better not be giving my child alcohol!

[DUKFVR]

You're not old fashioned. I'm 41 with a 20 year old married kid and a 13 and 14 year old. Midnight curfew is being a good parent. Not much good happens in the early morning hours around 2am. It's just being a responsible parent and looking out for your kids. Providing alcohol or allowing drinking while living under my roof isn't going to happen.There is no way I would condone that. I'm glad to see there's still parents that think like that.

This!

[Bazo]

I guess I have to ask, what does it depend on?


I just see so much of the underage drinking, we are having to question ourselves. My wife has been a HS teacher for over 20 years and she is seeing a shift in attitude. We had to skirt away from 3 graduation crawfish boils of her students as there was underage drinking.


I agree 100% but it seems like we are the only ones that follow that adage. He has two friends that their dads are LEO and they have a 2am curfew.

Who cares what other people let their kids do. You do with your kids as you feel needs to be done. If being a parent was a popularity contest I would have lost a long time ago.

[breederbuck33]

The friends I had whose parents let them drink at home are the ones who ended up having problems with alcohol. Sure we snuck out and partied, but I knew if I was ever caught drinking and driving my old man would take away everything I had.

[Jason]

Momma always told me, “nothing good happens after 10:30.”

The things I was doing was doing after 10:30, I sure hope my kiddos aren’t!

[Artos]

Mikey,

I took a different approach with my boy as curfew was meaningless to me growing up...just stayed / ignored it or snuck back out. Gave my poor Dad a hard time & really thought I might get paid back 10 fold.

Early on we told Kenny what we were up to at that age (Mrs Artos was Sr when I was freshman & had her own apt after graduation) w/ said parties and all the weekends sneaking to Mexico so there was no way he would be able to pull any crap on two experts. Anyway, I decided early on I would just take all the desire out of drinking and told him he could drink whenever / whatever was in the house so no reason to hide anything. Only condition is he couldn't leave the house & seemed to do the trick. He also had a really good small group of kids that were just outstanding individuals that he stayed with since Jr Hi & I think that helped a lot. They all started drinking right around graduation but were very responsible when it came to staying put and/or leaving parties with a DD.

He would ask to have friends over to bbq but knew better than to ask me to buy anything...in today's litigious climate, that is simply asking for serious trouble. He would have friends over when we rarely went out of town (Nanza) and wife would show me FB pics of them at 3am playing monopoly!! They were just different than us & weren't looking for trouble & kenny earned a huge amount of trust from me early on. Mom was always on point but that was a daily deal already. I know our method is not for most but wanted to share this as I think you should use his past history & known accomplices in your decision. I never put a time to be home it was always stay put or get home sober / alive & communicate whats going on so we know.