“If you know your teenagers are going to drink is it better to let them do it under your watchful eye?

”
Charlie Gillis asks in an article written about the disputed topic of underage drinking. Alcohol is the most
widely misused substance among today’s teenagers. Consumption of alcohol by anyone under the age
of 18, also known as underage drinking remains a controversial topic for many parents with children
ready to experiment. In today’s age children are going to drink whether their parents are okay with it or
not, so everyone might as well come together and make sure all teenagers know the risks and
responsibility that comes with it. I think the main worry and cause of accidents that are related to
alcohol are caused by lack of responsibility. There are various things you can do to help make sure you
are being as safe and responsible as possible. One of them being providing your child with a safe ride
home from wherever they may be drinking. Nearly one in four teenagers who die behind the wheel each
year are over the legal alcohol limit, while another study showed that in 2007 twenty-six percent of
teens polled had said they had been driven at least once within the last year by someone under the
influence.

Another thing that can be done to help prevent accidents is educating teens on all of the dangers that
can develop from drinking, for instance in the article “Should You Let Your Kids Drink at Home?” the
author refers to many tragic stories that have been related to underage drinking. For example, a grade
twelve student was seriously injured while “joyriding” around a parking lot in an SUV. And another year
a young girl was drunkenly walking home from a party and ended up falling down a hill and freezing to
death. These stories are prime examples of why allowing young adults to drink is frowned upon, but
another story stated in the article talks about how an eighteen-year-old boy who lost his life while trying
to steal a golf cart from a nearby golf course after a bush party. Yes, in some provinces that is underage
drinking but in Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta it is legal which shows that irresponsibility is shown in
citizens of legal age just as much as it is in teenagers. The dangers of drinking apply to every individual
who decides to put alcohol in their systems.

A survey done im 2004 by researchers at Wake Forest University in North Carolina found that teens who
engage in some drinking with their parents were on;ly one third as likely to indulge in heavy drinking as
an adult as those who don’t. Another very surprising study done at harvard university showed that men
who grew up in families where alcohol was forbidden were seven times more likely to become