| To me it is at best useless, at worst misleading, and expressive of an attitude I dislike. My parent had about the same views you describe. I agree with you that this is a sensible attitude toward alcohol and should decrease rather than increase the likelihood of alcohol problems.
My parents were also quite knowledgeable about wine and having wine with dinner was normal. I don't precisely remember when I started tasting the wines, but if not before then at about 10 years. Nowadays I very much appreciate good wine.
I started partying and drinking beer and other alcohol sometime around 13/14 years, and learned the requisite lessons during the teenage years, along with building up a pretty good tolerance. My parents didn't do the angry, forbidding thing. Instead they laughed at me sometimes, which was infinitely worse, and gave me some good advice on occasion. Nowadays I like a good beer (not the tasteless everyday stuff, except cold on hot summer days), and a very occasional drink.
I very much intend to emulate this approach to alcohol as a parent. |
