Let me first let everyone know i am a college student, so please believe i know about the underage drinking and the risks parents think thier kids face.

My freshman year at a university in CNY that is known for parties, i will tell you that students who had never had discussions with thier parents about drinking, or never had a beer at home with thier parents supervision, they were more likely to drink to become intoxicated, and not know what to do when something happened that could serisouly affect them, or someone they were friends with.

I grew up in a family that did not frown upon drinking, it was not something that was encouraged, which is not what i am saying to do. But you parents think that being strick and not talking to your kids about it will help. For an example, lets look at culture, Europe and America, in Europe, drinking is not frowned upon the way it is here, people drink, even students and young people, but they do not drink the way we do here, this isn't to say people don't get drunk. now look at the culture here, parents if you saw what some of your children were doing on a friday and saturday night when classes were not in session you would be ashamed. When will parents start to take responsibility for actions, and stop blaming things on other people. talk to your kids about this, don't treat it with such a taboo, when something is faced with as being bad, it makes the urge to do it more powerful.

as for kids on myspace, when used right, myspace can be fun for kids, which its supposed to be, but if parents would monitor thier kids, and start being parents. you should see some of the photos that girls, and boys that are in middle school are posting. these pictures are something you might see on a soft core porn web site, and parents wonder why pedophiles are targeting young girls, another reason is because they lie about thier age, and portray themselves as 18 and 19 year old girls. more parent responsibilty, if parents would moniter thier children there would be no problem. start acting like parents, not thier friends and then wonder why something happened to them.

Hi there!  I have to say I agree with what you said.  It's our job as parents to educate our children and know what they are doing and who they are doing it with. As for drinking if you make it out like a huge crime to your children, they are twice as likely to go behind your back and do it, and then when the situation arises ( like drinking and driving) they are more likely to make the stupid choice out of fear. While I don't condone underage drinking, I am not an idiot.  I have a long way to go before my kids hit that road but I hope to handle it in a way that if they do drink, they do it responsibly and aren't afraid to ask us for help and make some smarter choices.
     I agree on the myspace too..... parents must be completely clueless to allow their kids to have these pages they do.  I have a myspace and I am an adult, however I have seen these profiles from these kids who are half naked posing like porn stars lying about there age.  Not to even mention the personal info they put out there!  It's down right scary, I am sure pedophiles LOVE myspace.  These are the kids who think oh something like that can't happen to me..... or just flat out don't know any better.  Granted you can't control what your kids do 100% but give them some damn guidelines, there is no reason for a 12 yr old to have pics like they do claiming to be 18 with their address on there for the whole world to see.

amused obsever:

Hi there!  I have to say I agree with what you said.  It's our job as parents to educate our children and know what they are doing and who they are doing it with. As for drinking if you make it out like a huge crime to your children, they are twice as likely to go behind your back and do it, and then when the situation arises ( like drinking and driving) they are more likely to make the stupid choice out of fear. While I don't condone underage drinking, I am not an idiot.  I have a long way to go before my kids hit that road but I hope to handle it in a way that if they do drink, they do it responsibly and aren't afraid to ask us for help and make some smarter choices.
     I agree on the myspace too..... parents must be completely clueless to allow their kids to have these pages they do.  I have a myspace and I am an adult, however I have seen these profiles from these kids who are half naked posing like porn stars lying about there age.  Not to even mention the personal info they put out there!  It's down right scary, I am sure pedophiles LOVE myspace.  These are the kids who think oh something like that can't happen to me..... or just flat out don't know any better.  Granted you can't control what your kids do 100% but give them some damn guidelines, there is no reason for a 12 yr old to have pics like they do claiming to be 18 with their address on there for the whole world to see.

Also of mention is that if you drink in front of your kids, especially heavily, they're more likely to develop future problems with alcohol, and maybe other drugs.

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~Mike