>Agreed. I don't expect them to never try any alcohol. I'm just hoping they will dabble, see they don't like it, and forget it after that. I also try to instill that they can't drink and drive .. or ride with someone else who has been drinking and driving. My oldest is 15 and only has a learner's permit but I have told them often .. when the time comes if they are at a party and they've been drinking or their driver has been drinking, call me and I will come and get them .. no questions asked. I'd rather pick them up at a friend's house than identify the body at the morgue.

When some teenagers drove over a couple of teenage girls last winter, the whole right wing cabal tried to use it as a reason for a whole new wave of campaign against illegal immigrants (which the driver and his pal were). The whole local community got very loud here, basically telling Thelma Drake et al to shut up about their favorite game and do something about DUI instead, which is a huge problem here. Accidentally, within a couple of weeks (before or after this, can't remember) there was a case of a guy who had 22 cases on his file... well, files, because he somehow managed to keep only one or two per jurisdiction, and those weren't put together until he slammed a toll booth on the Chesapeake Bay bridge.

And right, I'd rather have them have a drink or two, or have their one blackout while learning the ropes, with any assistance we can give, than doing it on the side and ending in a hospital.

Thinking of half a dozen of nicest girls from my generation, who all met alcohol around 8th grade (to the point one had to have her stomach pumped out and got caffeine shots at the hospital for ethanol poisoning), only one (not the same one!) became a drinker, and it's just her walking with crutches and one more limping, from car crashes. Luckily, everyone is alive, mostly because we didn't have cars and didn't really need them - watering holes were within walking distance ;).