Commentary—

Underage Drinking Is A Parental Responsibility

By Nancy K. Crevier

Presidents of more than 100 colleges and universities across the country have joined with the Amethyst Initiative to encourage discussion on the legal drinking age. The school leaders suggest that a drinking age of 21 is not working and sets the stage for binge drinking on campus, where the majority of students are under 21 years of age.

The Amethyst Initiative was founded this summer by John McCardell, president emeritus of Middlebury College in Vermont, who hopes with the support of other higher education leaders to reopen discussion about the legal drinking age and its apparent failure to prevent risks associated with drinking among young people.

According to a statement issued by the Amethyst Initiative at AmethystInitiative.org, the drinking age of 21 has contributed to “clandestine ‘binge drinking,’” and eroded respect for the law.

The argument is that a drinking age other than 21 may be one avenue to creating a less secretive society of drinkers on and off campus.

I think that the focus on at what age young people should be legally able to obtain alcohol and drink it is not where we should be putting our energy. As in so many cases, the government is taking over where we, as parents, have failed to teach responsibility.

Even before my teenagers began to drive, I would casually interject driving tips into our conversations as we went about errands, pointing out when it was safe to go, talking about speed limits, discussing errors in judgment by other drivers that we observed, or even better choices that I could have made in various situations. I talked out loud about driving decisions I was making as they occurred. My suggestions and advice continued through the months in which they held driver’s permits and even now, after both have been licensed by the state, I still feel free to gently remind them about the treacherous nature of Newtown’s winding roads, warn them about the hazards of wild animals, and share with them my own driving experiences. I would never have thought to have the government select a date on which it was legal for them to drive and handed over the car keys without prior preparation. We have a graduated driving program, and even as recently as August 1, new, more stringent laws have gone into effect in Connecticut in the hopes that more young lives will be saved on the roads as the new drivers gain experience.

But when our young people turn 21 — or 18, or whatever arbitrary age is selected — we expect our children to understand the effects and responsibilities of handling a drug that has been withheld from them, disparaged by many, and given a mysterious allure through its forbidden status.

Why do we not seek a graduated drinking age? Why, as parents, are we not the ones to determine when and how our children learn to drink? By setting good examples when drinking and supporting those laws that are known to prevent deaths and injuries, we can take the first steps in heading out young people off into the adult world — where drinking exists. It is easy to allow government and schools to teach and influence children about drinking, but it is up to parents to sit down and talk to them about why one drinks, when one drinks, what it is like, and any family health histories they may want to take into consideration before they take that first drink.

Would it not be wiser to ease young people into the responsibilities that go with alcohol consumption under the guidance of a trusted adult? Teaching our children, ourselves, to respect a powerful drug is a parent’s responsibility. Then, no matter what the legal age limit is set at, they will be able to make educated choices.

There are opponents of the Amethyst Initiative who fear that a lowered drinking age will be proposed and are fiercely against those educational leaders who have signed the Amethyst Initiative statement. They may be jumping the gun. Reopening discussion to find better solutions is not a call to change the drinking age.

Reopening discussion in the home, in the meantime, may be the responsibility of parents that has been ignored and will go further than any law invoked.