[walden]

True.

I am tremendously opposed to infantilizing older teens-- it just creates resentment at the idiocy of adult society. And, when we push them out of adult culture, they just go create their own culture. I have two high school aged daughters, and it is MUCH easier for them to buy Ecstasy & other club drugs, marijuana and lsd, than it is to get cigarettes and beer. So far, thank God, my daughters have stayed away from that, but I make my views strongly known to them.

In fact, when we sit down together and have a beer and a smoke, I tell them exactly how I feel.

[Just another Joe]

In fact, when we sit down together and have a beer and a smoke, I tell them exactly how I feel.

BWahahaha. So, you BRIBE them, huh?

[mamelukesabre]

Sounds like you and I have similar ideas.

I have posted before that I thought the rise in rave partys and the drugs that go with them are a direct result of teens not being able to party like they used to when I was a teen. They take beer away from them, and this is what happens. When I was a youngster, you could stand in front of a grocery store and ask people at random to buy beer for you. I never had to ask more than 3 people before finding someone that would do it. It was a tradition of sorts. They did it for you simply because someone did it for them when they were young. But nowdays, I never see any young people asking me to do it for them. I think the tradition has been broken somewhere along the way, and rave parties have filled the void.

[Gabz]

In fact, when we sit down together and have a beer and a smoke, I tell them exactly how I feel.

I understand the nature of your comment, but you know what - it's probably not that bad of an attitude to have.

I remember when I was growing up and the big Sunday family dinners. There was always wine on the table and I was always permitted to have some. And in the summer when those sunday dinners were backyard BBQ's there was always beer, same deal. I was in college before I ever figured out the whys of the binge drinking of some of my friends. Having a glass of wine or a beer was not some unknown taboo to me.

Smoking, OTOH, was a different story. Many members of my family smoked - including both of my parents - yet I was forbidden. No reason, just - "you can't because I say so."

So I did exactly what any other red blooded American teenager did (and does) I rebelled and started smoking. The first time I got caught the neighbors must have thought I had come home pregnant over the hysteria that ensued.

I'm talking the mid 1970's here. Back when it was perfectly legal for me to buy them and smoke them, even though I was under 18. They were also under a buck a pack in NYC, so as a teenager I could afford them.