Responding to Tough Questions and Comments

“Did you drink when you were a teen?”

This is a question most parents fear. If you did drink as a teen and are concerned that saying you did will make you a hypocrite, remember that you have much more information now than then. And, giving your teen that information is your job as a parent.

Since you were a teen, researchers are now able to measure diminished brain capacity and memory loss in teen drinkers. And while we are still learning how much alcohol it takes and how long the drinking must occur before the damage begins or causes significant problems, does anyone want to take that chance?

Also, there’s a possibility that the drinking age was lower when you were your child’s age. Today it is 21, and 21 for a reason: it saves lives. The bottom line is that if your child drinks before the age of 21, he or she is breaking the law—regardless of what you did as a teen.

If my friends and I are old enough to go to war and die for our country, why can’t we have a beer at 18?

One of the most compelling responses to this is the fact that, before the 21 minimum drinking age laws were enacted, the military was routinely and tragically losing countless young soldiers in alcohol-related crashes before or between their military assignments. By saving these young soldiers, the 21 law actually protected our military.

Another very important point to make is that in the 1970s, some states reduced their drinking age to 18 or 19. Drunk driving crashes immediately spiked with the law change. When the drinking age returned to 21, there was an immediate decrease in drunk driving crashes. It’s easy to see the live-saving impact of this public health law.

Also, remind your child that many rights have different ages of initiation. You can get a hunting license at age 12, drive at 16, vote and serve in the military at 18, serve in the U.S. House of Representatives at 25, and serve as the U.S. President at 35. Other regulated rights include the sale and use of tobacco, and legal consent for sexual intercourse and marriage. Vendors, such as car rental facilities and hotels, also have set the minimum age for a person to use their services—25-years-old to rent a car and 21-years-old to rent a hotel room.

And these minimum ages are set for a reason. Explain that, in the case of alcohol, 21 is the minimum age because a person’s brain does not stop developing until his or her early 20s. Drinking alcohol while the brain is still developing can lead to long-lasting deficits in cognitive abilities, including learning and memory.

Also, drinking before 21 is also related to numerous health problems including injuries and death resulting from alcohol poisoning, car crashes, suicide, homicide, assaults, drowning and recreational mishaps. Not to mention that the early onset of drinking by youth significantly increases the risk of future health problems such as addiction.

Remind your child that you are trying to keep him or her safe and healthy.

If we were allowed to drink, we wouldn’t want to.

Knowing the history of the drinking age can help you in responding to this question. When the drinking age was lowered in the early 1970s, the only thing that changed was that teen drinking as well as drunk driving traffic crashes rose.

Europe is also evidence that this statement is simply not true. European drinking ages are often 18 or lower and alcohol abuse among European teens is a significant problem, despite arguments to the contrary. In fact, according to the

Prevention Research Center, European teens drink more often, more heavily and get drunk more often than American teens and have significant addition problems as well.

You should teach me to drink responsibly like they do in Europe.

Again, the claim that Europeans learn to drink moderately and safely in a family setting is a myth. Explain to your teen that studies show that when compared to the U.S., the rate of binge drinking (five or more drinks in a row) was higher in every country except Turkey. In America, 22 percent of surveyed teens binge drank in the past 30 days. In Denmark, it was 60 percent, in Germany 57 percent, in Britain 54 percent and in Italy, 34 percent of teens were binge drinking every month.