“Other than toasting in celebration and partaking of the Eucharist, if you are Catholic, what other reasons are there to consume alcohol? How many drinkers do you know who take a few sips from a glass a few times a year?”
If I go to a Knights of Columbus event, it's quite likely that there will be beer, and perhaps wine. Many folks won't drink any of it, but many will have a beer. Or two. Or even three or four over the course of a long day. Or a few glasses of wine.
Nearly everyone I know drinks. And everyone I know who drinks does so socially and responsibly. In my own house, we typically have between a half-case and a case of wine in at any one time. We cook with some of it, but we drink the rest. A glass (or sometimes two) with dinner. Fairly ordinary for us. I have scotch, bourbon, rum and other hard liquors in the house. We drink those less often, but nonetheless, they get consumed over time.
My parents taught us to drink alcohol from an early age. I was four when I'd sip my father's nightly beer with dinner. Yup - four years old. I was little older at my introduction to scotch. I've just never had a problem drinking. I raised my own children similarly. My son goes to college on a campus where binge drinking is a notorious problem. He's the fellow who helps the more drunken ones back to their dorm rooms after they've puked their guts up.
The attitude toward alcohol that is prevalent in American society is purely insane. Don't drink a drop of alcohol till you're 21!!! Then, magically, the beer fairy will tap you on your head and you will be “ready” to drink! But not really! You'd be better off without the evil vice! But don't worry - if you just wait until you're 21, you'll do fine!
Drinking alcohol is ultimately a behavior that requires adult supervision and adult judgment. But learning those behaviors and judgment don't come at the blink of an eye at midnight on one’s 21st birthday. Ideally, children should be taught to drink moderately and responsibly. They should be explicitly taught when it is acceptable to drink and when it is not. How much is acceptable, how much is not. When to avoid alcohol, when to indulge. How to drink, how not to drink. The dangers of alcohol, the pleasures of it. How to select a good wine, a decent wine, an enjoyable beer, a fine liquor.
If parents teach their children what to do with this stuff when their children are young, their children will know what to do, will know how to behave as adults, and how to supervise themselves as adults when they turn 21.
My parents raised four children by this rule. We're a motley crew. Between us, there are three divorces, four failed marriages, mental illness, homelessness at times, financial problems, you name it. But none of us has ever had a problem with alcohol. Except my older brother, who died, we're all light, social drinkers. Yet, none of us were ever forbidden to drink by our parents, only that we learn to drink moderately and appropriately.
Sorry, I just don't know what in the world you're talking about. Lots of folks drink regularly or semi-regularly, with meals, in the context of social events, without overimbibing.
sitetest
Well that brought back some old memories! Dad would send me to frig to bring him a beer and I always got that first cold sip, dad called it the cream off the top!
You do it your way, and I’ll do it mine. I’ve talked to my son about alcohol, and I’ve advised him to not touch it until he’s college age. Early exposure to alcohol is the nearly universal experience in alcoholics that I’ve talked to, and I’ve talked to a lot. Young brains (pre-teen and teen) are are wiring themselves for the future, and early exposure to alcohol can wire them for an affinity to it. Your anecdotal success doesn’t dissuade me. I’m comfortable keeping an alcohol free house, and doing all in my power to prevent my children from consuming it.