Some parents, teens and young adults continue to hold the basic philosophy that underage drinking, or teen drinking parties to celebrate special events like graduation, are simply a rite of passage. You will hear parents say, "Kids are going to drink anyway, so why not in a safe environment?" Although this may be the parent’s goal, it is too often not the case.
While some parents will say that they will take the car keys to prevent drinking and driving, the liability a parent assumes for allowing an underage drinking party at their home, during which someone gets hurt or killed during or after alcohol consumption, is monumental.
There are many cases of teens getting drunk at an underage house party, driving drunk and getting killed. In a recent incident, one teen from the
While six to eight drinks may have been considered a heavy night of drinking during a parent’s teenage years that is just a starting point for many of our teens. Modern-day underage drinking parties boast kegs or multiple cases of beer. As many as 14 drinks in one sitting by teens are not unusual. Teens drink for one reason at such parties: to get drunk.
What’s more, today’s underage drinking parties occur much less in the woods or in a car. Ninety-five percent of the time, kids choose to party in homes - the homes of their parents or their friends’ parents. In addition to parents’ homes, many underage drinking parties are taking place at the residences of young adults.
For many teenagers, drinking and getting drunk… real drunk… seems to have become a rite of passage. If that is the case, it is a rite that has also become a passage into a dark lifelong journey of alcoholism and later… in many cases… drug addiction.
