I recently had to deal with underage drinking
with my 17 year old son. I was at a friends house on New Year's eve
when my son called me and asked if he could go to a NY's eve party at a
friends in the neighborhood near ours. I told him no because he has a
Cinderella license and has to be home at 11. The police would
definitely be out in force on that night. He became upset with me and
basically hung up on me. I texted my 22 yr. old son and asked him to
speak with his brother and try to tell him the same thing that I had.
He did and made the suggestion that my son sleep over this friends
house. There was going to be no alcohol served. I told him that he
could not sleep over because we only had one car at the time as the
other one was in the shop, and my husband had to go to work and would
need the car. Again, he became very upset with me. I was willing to
deal with that. Then my older son called and said that he would take
his brother to the party that he was going to. All his friends from
grade school would be there. I also know the families quite well. I
told my 17 yr. old "NO DRINKING!" Well...at 2AM I was awakened by a
loud thump in the hallway outside my bedroom. I got up and saw my 22
yr. old helping his brother into his bed. He told me that he had to
talk to me and we went downstairs. I could smell the alcohol as soon as
I entered my sons bedroom. We went downstairs and my 22 yr. old told me
that his brother had become EXTREMELY drunk at the party. He said that
he did not see him drinking, but by the time they were ready to leave,
he could barely stand up. He was very loud walking home and was weaving
all over the place. The police saw him and made them stop(they had been
out looking for kids who had ripped open trash bags and strewn trash
all over the neighborhood. They thought at first that my son was
involved-he was not). He was obviously intoxicated. One of the police
officers drove them home and told my older son that his brother would
be receiving a citation in the mail. I was devastated! This boy does
not drink. He has had the occasional(I found out) drink of beer at his
dads. I don't let him drink in social situations with my family at all.
He is almost a straight A student. He is two merit badges away from his
Eagle Scout. He has been accepted to a good college, and he works. One
stupid mistake-he told me that he was "mad at his friends" and wanted
to get hammered as fast as he could-and he may lose his license, plus
have huge fines to pay-because of teenage stupidity. My sister helped
me retain a lawyer and my son will have to pay her back. Some schools
these days will not accept someone if they have an underage drinking
charge on their record. Fortunately, he is still 17 and won't be
considered an adult for this. The kids that held the party are all over
21. I can't hold them accountable, because they couldn't keep their
eyes on him the whole time he was there. I wish that they would have
told my 17 yr. old that he could not attend, but he was with his older
brother-who is USUALLY a very responsible and conscientious person! He
swears he didn't see his brother drinking that much. My son was so
incredibly inebriated that he vomited and lay in it because he didn't
even know he had done it! I couldn't even wake him up enough to lay him
on his side! These kids just don't know what can happen. They haven't a
CLUE how their lives can be affected by one night of indiscretion. He
doesn't even remember 1/4 of what happened that night. He actually
thought that the encounter with the police was a dream and wasn't going
to say anything to me! I'm just hoping that his near future isn't
ruined because of this stupidity. I just wanted to share this.
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