<p>My kids have told me that bingeing among peers occurs partly because the drinking is surreptitious, so there is pressure to finish whatever amount of alcohol was “scored.” This may be more true in high school. High school kids are not going to leave alcohol in the woods, unconsumed,and they aren’t going to leave evidence in homes or cars. </p>
<p>I have seen alcohol stored in college rooms, so perhaps the pressure isn’t the same there. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, it is true in my 23 year-old son’s case, that he now very much enjoys ordering an alcoholic beverage before a meal or with a meal, when he goes out with co-workers, and he told me he thought many of his friends’ drinking habits calmed down once they were legal.</p>
<p>I make no pretense of having studied this on a larger scale. Some college presidents are pushing for the age to go down to 18, but I certainly can imagine what some of their motives are.</p>
<p>My son, when he first went to college, carefully drank 2 oz of liquor or one beer per hour, because, before he left, I told him that his body could metabolize that much in that amount of time. He played with it a little, I’m sure, in his mathematical way, but I don’t think he made a habit of overdoing it.</p>
<p>In general, I have been bothered by the alcohol education done in public schools, at least in our area. Too rigid, and the program sets it up so that the kids either don’t drink, or they binge. I do wish (and of course this is not legal, unless done by parents in their own homes) that kids could learn, say, to handle a glass of wine with meal, starting in mid-teens, and get trained on how to drink.</p>
<p>Adults constantly predicting dire things from drinking, and the constant message that alcohol is somehow evil, can be counterproductive. I am wondering if some of the kids who want to abstain, have been educated that alcohol is “bad.” Alcohol has been used for celebration and connection throughout human history, and can be “good.” It’s a paradox, but it seems as if talking about it as a benign (though illegal under 21) substance, as parents, can help to moderate things a bit.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think my kids have met some great people who do sometimes overdo. My daughter, the one who can’t drink anyway, also “enjoys” helping other people out. She’s the one those boys upstairs call at 2 am to help them get back upstairs safely. If someone seems to be in trouble, she talks with them. But she wouldn’t want to miss out on knowing them otherwise. Some of them are very serious students, and quite interesting people.</p>
<p>Full disclosure, I really don’t drink at all, myself. Like my daughter, I now have allergies. But I do remember savoring the first glass of sherry that I was given by my parents at a holiday when I was 15.</p>