Where do you keep your liquor?

[kwitcherkicken99]

My parents THOUGHT they taught me.... and I pretended I had been taught, but I probably got drunk about 5 - 10 times a year as a teen.

Do I think it will never happen? No. I'm not perfect, nor are my children BUT if they think that they'll be able to sneak it under my nose, they are sadly mistaken.

Unfortunately, I'm well-versed in noticing the signs of drinking. I'm not going into details, but very little gets past me. I’d also hope that when they are older they will respect us enough to not lie about every little thing – especially potentially dangerous substances. I will take strong actions against underaged drinking/drugs (prescription abuse included) and I will not hesitate to put them into programs whether they like it or not if it comes to that point. It may seem cool at the time, but eventually it gets old and some even lose things that they didn’t want to (and I’m not talking cell phones here).

With all due respect, when my children were two and four I was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt they would be perfect angels and never cause me a minute's concern about ANY issue that other kids and parents faced.

Let me just say that when T Man and Bug are 18 and 16 you might have entirely different circumstances, even though you will have taught them responsibility as we all did.

My parents didn't hide alcohol from us. Nor were they big drinkers, but on the rare occasion that my dad felt like having an adult beverage, it was never an issue. He'd have one, maybe 2, and not drive. Both my parents were public servants and the repercussions of irresponisble drinking weren't worth losing their respective careers to them. The motto was ALWAYS moderation – and don’t be stupid.

Do we enjoy adult beverages in front of our kids? Yes we do. More DH than myself, I’m not as big into drinking as I was when I was in college. It’s just not worth it to me. That and I can come up with about a million other things to spend money on than excessive amounts of booze.

Do I allow people to get stinking drunk around them? Absolutely not.

DH's parents on the otherhand hid it, locked it up, forbade the kids from it, and all 3 kids were drinking throughout most of high school and college, throwing parties when the parents were out of town and having to clean up some BIG messes before they got home. To this day, my BIL will not keep his beer IN HIS OWN HOUSE, anywhere that his mother could possibly see it if they come over for dinner. He's 30 and still hiding it from his mommy (but that's a whole other thread...)

There is a way to teach responsibility and moderation. Should my kids make the decision to drink before it’s legal, they’ll have to deal with the consequences of their actions.

 

[golfgal]

Again, my issue is not with kids drinking at home. My issue is with kids taking the alcohol from my house and using it somewhere else.

And I am certain that I do not have the only teens in America who know all about the use of alcohol in moderation, would never dream of drinking and driving, call when they need a ride, etc. and STILL will at some point be tempted to take something from my liquor cabinet to a friend's house or a party. Because even though they see it modeled at home, hear it at school, etc. teens don't drink socially by having a cocktail in moderation like they saw mom and dad. They drink to get drunk and they aren't fussy about what they have to make it happen. DD22's first illicit drink was warm gin and Diet Dr. Pepper behind the garage at a friend's house in tenth grade - because that's what they had been able to sneak out with. I tease her about it now - when we are in a restaurant ansd she is perusing the drink menu I'll sometimes say, "Hey, wouldn't a nice warm gin and Diet Dr. Pepper hit the spot about now?" and she laughs and rolls her eyes at how stupid she was back in the day.

From my experience your DS is part of the minority when it comes to drinking in college. Even the most fervent "lips that touch liquor will never touch mine" President of the MADD Society friends of my daughter's in high school had loosened up considerably by the time they had been away at college a year or two.

Again, if you make it a big taboo, your kids WILL take it out of the house, or get it elsewhere to see what the big deal is-which is it isn't a big deal.

We have actually told our son to lighten up on the no alcohol thing and that it isn't that big of a deal-he is in college, high school ok, I am glad you stayed away from it then, but now, don't let it kill your social life not going to parties in college because people are drinking. He was very active in SADD in high school and still feels that responsibility.

 

[Jason@dvcstore]

He has a refrigerator in his half of the basement and he keeps it in there.

Is your basement divided by tape on the floor like the Brady Bunch.



Jason

 

[DeniseinNS]

We aren't big drinkers so there usually isn't much alcohol in our house, maybe some beer in the fridge every few months.

 

[Jason@dvcstore]

My parents don't drink so in high school I had to keep my alcohol in my glove box and my trunk.

My wife and I have a son who was born 9/15/09 and we keep our alcohol in a liquor cabinet in the dining room. My wife usually keeps her wine just right on the counter.

Jason

 

[DVCLiz]

Again, if you make it a big taboo, your kids WILL take it out of the house, or get it elsewhere to see what the big deal is-which is it isn't a big deal.

We have actually told our son to lighten up on the no alcohol thing and that it isn't that big of a deal-he is in college, high school ok, I am glad you stayed away from it then, but now, don't let it kill your social life not going to parties in college because people are drinking. He was very active in SADD in high school and still feels that responsibility.

And again, I have not made it a "big taboo." But you cannot convince me that a teen who is allowed to drink in moderation at home is going to say, "Oh, now I see that alcohol in moderation is a fine thing so I'm not going to be participating in any teen social event with my peer group at which alcohol and getting drunk are in any way part of the occasion. Now that I know that having a glass of wine on Thanksgiving is the norm, I'm not going to be caught up in ANY type of typical teen behavior."

If that has been your experience with your teens (who are younger than mine) then I am glad it has worked that way for you. But the teens I know had a glass of wine or a beer at home with Mom and Dad and THEN they went to a party and drank what they could get anyway. (Often courtesy of an older brother or sister, and that's another thread entirely.)

 

[MichelleVW]

What bugs me about these threads are the people that are convinced that every single teenager drinks. I honestly don't believe that my youngest drinks, and I know her best friend doesn't. I'm sure people will say, "yeah right...she drinks" But if the best friend drank, why would my DD talk to me about her friend being a little too "pure" and that friend said she wouldn't even attend a party in college or later where there was alcohol present.


There are teens that don't drink/smoke and have sex (had to throw that in there too because according to the media all teens are also having sex). I'm not saying my girls are perfect, but they aren't dipping into my tequila.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

There are teens that don't drink/smoke and have sex (had to throw that in there too because according to the media all teens are also having sex). I'm not saying my girls are perfect, but they aren't dipping into my tequila.

I believe you. I didn't partake in that stuff until I went to college. I had other things I'd rather be doing.

I didn't think a good time meant passing out at someone's house and having people make fun of me for being a "lightweight". Then again, some of those same people were also the ones who wrote in black lipstick, on their faces no less, that they were no longer virgins. Yup, just the type of people I want to hang out with...

 

[Disney Doll]

In a cabinet in the kitchen. We have a 3 foot wide section of cabinet (both upper and lower) that's separated from the rest of the counter space by the refirgerator so we made that the "bar" area...liquor below and glasses, shakers and other "bar paraphernalia" above.

We have no kids.

 

[golfgal]

What bugs me about these threads are the people that are convinced that every single teenager drinks. I honestly don't believe that my youngest drinks, and I know her best friend doesn't. I'm sure people will say, "yeah right...she drinks" But if the best friend drank, why would my DD talk to me about her friend being a little too "pure" and that friend said she wouldn't even attend a party in college or later where there was alcohol present.


There are teens that don't drink/smoke and have sex (had to throw that in there too because according to the media all teens are also having sex). I'm not saying my girls are perfect, but they aren't dipping into my tequila.

I agree--even way back when I was in high school there were parties with alcohol and NO ONE pressured anyone to drink. If you felt pressured to drink that was your own doing. In our schools, and most of the schools around here, there is guilt by association so if you are AT a party where there is alcohol and it is busted, you are busted too, period, even if alcohol has never crossed your lips, ever. The better students and athletes just don't take the chance because they HAVE seen kids lose scholarships, get kicked off teams, etc. That's not to say that there isn't a party to be found, there are plenty, and plenty of kids that DO drink, but not the kids our kids hang around with.

 

[cm8]

WOW! Sounds like your daughter needs new friends.....

no she doesn't you know she is apparently raising a future pole dancer, ........she says so in her signature...........Don't kill me Punkin, I just could not help myself

 

[punkin]

no she doesn't you know she is apparently raising a future pole dancer, ........she says so in her signature...........Don't kill me Punkin, I just could not help myself

I'll just go into the kitchen and sharpen my knives now.

I changed that signature a while back, BTW.

 

[momz]

something that I noticed when reading through this thread.

In my neighborhood....where are the kids getting their booze...? Why from the neighborhood garages of course. People put their booze on the garage shelf, and their beer in the garage fridge. Then, when they're out cutting the grass, or what have you, while the garage door is up, the kids just quietly walk in, help themselves, and move on down the street to the next house with the garage door up.

storing your booze in the garage...bad idea...

 

[jfoofj]

I'm back... I asked my mom last night if she knew that we snuck alcohol when we were kids. She said that when she went to get the bottle of vodka out of the freezer and it was frozen, she knew. To my credit, I was away at college when that happened, so it had to have been one of my younger siblings. Besides, I was WAY smarter than that! My mom said that she never worried about me, because I was the "good" one (ummmmm, ok) but that my brothers made her worry. Of course, the same brother who probably filled the vodka bottle with water also threw up out his window one winter night, leaving a frozen puke stain on the house, so he was never very slick.

All of us kids have grown up pretty darn normal, none are problem drinkers, we all went to college, have good jobs, etc. I think that the bigger a deal you make of alcohol, the bigger a deal it becomes. Will it be the end of the world if my son drinks beer when he is 19? No. If he drives, that's another story. I won't tolerate that, and even now I emphasize that drinking and driving is not ok. I don't do it, and we talk about it whenever it comes up on tv or whatever, how it is a bad choice. I also work in a hospital with a trauma center, so my kids constantly hear me tell them all the horrible things that can happen.

 

[NotUrsula]

We keep it on the top shelf in the pantry, out of casual reach. This is more to prevent breakage than to prevent pilferage, obviously. I've got a teen and a toddler. DS is actually rather a Pollyanna about liquor, and I'm danged if I know where he got that attitude, because we didn't give it to him. We don't drink much, but when we do we do it openly.

It is actually possible to lock the pantry door, and if DS was at risk for throwing a party we'd probably lock it, just as much to keep them from eating us out of house and home as to keep them out of the liquor.

It honestly NEVER would have occured to me to steal from my parents' liquor supply. They didn't have much money, but the whiskey was good stuff, so they monitored it, and would have noticed immediately if it was missing or watered. My parents would have made my life a living hell for stealing it, though they would have and did give it to me (in moderation) if I asked politely. If I wanted to get tanked with friends it was a much safer proposition to buy my own cheap booze (as a teen I looked much older than I actually was.)

 

[FireDancer]

The only alcohol I usually have in the house is wine and that is on a wine rack in my kitchen.

 

[Big Cuddly Bear]

something that I noticed when reading through this thread.

In my neighborhood....where are the kids getting their booze...? Why from the neighborhood garages of course. People put their booze on the garage shelf, and their beer in the garage fridge. Then, when they're out cutting the grass, or what have you, while the garage door is up, the kids just quietly walk in, help themselves, and move on down the street to the next house with the garage door up.

storing your booze in the garage...bad idea...

My garage door is never open. I keep all my garden stuff in a shed... so the garage keeps it out of sight for me as well. Not that I drink much at all - maybe 10 drinks a year, but I would drink more if I had it it front of me.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Have a 13 year old and 10 year old. We don't have liquor or beer in the house often, but when we do it's in the snack cabinet or fridge

I don't worry about either of them touching it.

 

[Kat77]

We keep it on the top shelf in the pantry, out of casual reach. This is more to prevent breakage than to prevent pilferage, obviously. I've got a teen and a toddler. DS is actually rather a Pollyanna about liquor, and I'm danged if I know where he got that attitude, because we didn't give it to him. We don't drink much, but when we do we do it openly.

It is actually possible to lock the pantry door, and if DS was at risk for throwing a party we'd probably lock it, just as much to keep them from eating us out of house and home as to keep them out of the liquor.

It honestly NEVER would have occured to me to steal from my parents' liquor supply. They didn't have much money, but the whiskey was good stuff, so they monitored it, and would have noticed immediately if it was missing or watered. My parents would have made my life a living hell for stealing it, though they would have and did give it to me (in moderation) if I asked politely. If I wanted to get tanked with friends it was a much safer proposition to buy my own cheap booze (as a teen I looked much older than I actually was.)

The bolded part made me smile. So true! Boones exists solely off experimenting teens! Nipping at a parents liquor did not a party make . Stealing the entire bottle, sure, but not many were bold enough for that.

We have a few big bottles on the top shelf of our pantry. DH does not drink, so it's my collection from drinking with the girls once every blue moon. I would not know for a very long time if one went missing so this is definately something to think about. I keep sample bottles in my spice cabinet for cooking. I cook with alcohol and wine often. My dad will grab a bottle from there occasionally to mix with soda so I do not think much of one going missing. I'm not keen on locking it away but we might need to evaluate how we keep track of it. I guess when I catch the kids swigging rum as we're making a recipe I'll know we have a problem here

 

[daisy2jae]

in the back of the closet on the top shelf. the kids don't know it's there. I have to use a stool and pull lots of crap off the shelf to even get to it. We don't drink often so it's not a big deal to have it put way in the back of the closet. we keep beer in the garage fridge but usually 6 or less at a time.