CarolD

The youngest member of my AA group is 16....he is doing well.
Charlie is also doing well ...sober 38 years he is the kids sponsor
He got AA sober at 19..

One is from a home full of alcoholic/addicts....the other has no
family history of drinkers or druggies.

Watching the 2 of them together brings to my mind
"Each one...reach one" is a working formula....

Wilde10

I also believe I was addicted before I drank. It was meant to happen unless alcohol was out of my reach. but something else would have caught me. Perhpas not as bad, but something else.
However, I have been aware of having a problem quite soon (this did not stop me soon enough though) because I knew about alcoholism. Because my mum has always told us to be careful, to look around and see how many members of our family were destroyed by alcohol. So I had some kind of alarm activated to watch out.
As I say it only worked to make me aware of the problem. Not to stop me from drinking. I have two small kids. I hate the statements I have just made because it means that probably I am not in control of what will happen to them and their relation with alcohol. I live in a society where binge drinking with no other purpose than getting drunk is the norm. And I also believe that you may not be born an alcoholic but you can become one if you insist on it.

tsukiko

I'm a vegetarian, but I'd never raise a kid to be a vegetarian or try persaude them either way. I'd hope to raise them with as much understanding of nutrition (on both sides of the argument) so that when they got older I'd given them a solid and level foundation and the best tools to carry on building.

I don't wanna' -parent or not- fill fill a person like a storage box with my convictions and ready-made values, I just wanna' fill 'em like a tool box (lol) with the best tools I can so they can make their own life. That way they're responsible for what they make of life, hopefuly they'll be grateful because they'll have built it all and they'll have the skills and tools if anything gets broken or needs fixing along the way.

I'm hoping that makes some sense lol

pongo

It has been statistically proven that when parents talk to their children about drugs and alcohol the children are less likely to abuse those substances. I realize that statistics don't account for every individual circumstance. It is up to every parent to do their best and to make efforts to influence their children's choices. Thank God, my children have never seen me drink.

Mark75

Yea... that.

My kids are late teens, early twenties. The older son likes to drink a few beers with his buddies, my daughter like a Mike's lemonade. They show me some respect by being low key and don't drink when it's just family time... if they have some friends over... it's the back porch for them... often times I'll grab a diet coke and join them for a few minutes... I like my kids and their friends, and vice versa... If I get feeling sorry for myself because I can't join them with a beer, I go somewhere else... but I usually don't need to do that.

I don't think I was born alcoholic, pretty sure I wasn't. But I was born curious. My father was an alcoholic who died with 23 years sobriety... Did that knowledge help me?..... yes, but not until I started recovery.

Mark