Three Kids Walk Into a Bar...

I have never looked at drinking with kids how you put it. I think personally I would not like to see any kids in a bar. Drinking is not for anyone, children or adult. I think people in general drink to have fun. I think if you cannot have fun without drinking then that is a problem. We should be teaching kids we do not need alcohol in our life. It has the same effect as cigarette. It can get addictive. happy lotting.

I'd be shocked. And, personally as an adult going to the bar, I wouldn't want kids in there. I mean I'm going to an "adult" place so I don't have to be around kids. What's wrong with your state? Are you sure it's Wisconsin and not Minnesota?

Good Day Ted,
When I was 14 years old I worked for beer distributor who also owned a small soda pop bottling company. It was my job to run the bottle washer and go with another employee (there were only 3 of us including the owner) to deliver soda pop and beer. The owner had a "Stag" beer distributorship and every Thursday we had to be at the beer bottling plant, 50 miles away, very early to get our truck in line and backed up to the loading dock. We always went across the street to eat breakfast at a small diner. This was a very highly populated German town and we would see small kids with their parents and they would all have a glass of beer in front of them. Sometimes we wouldn't get away from loading our beer on the truck until afternoon and we would see the same thing at lunch time in the diner.

I was heavily involved in sports in school and never had a beer until I went into military service. I did get sick once during a high school dance on "Virginia Dare" wine though, never liked wine after that, still don't.

I do not think that underage drinking should be allowed at all. If i walked in somewhere where it was allowed i would not like it, and i would go somewhere else.

This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever read...are they nuts in Wisconsin? My youngest daughter is 18 and teaching her to drink at all has not been anywhere on our list of priorities. She, just like every other teenager in the country, sneaked a beer or a wine cooler from time to time and she's also seen some of her friends smashed and stupid. We've talked to her about alcohol and we set an example for her with our behavior. A bar is not an appropriate environment for kids and it irritates us to no end if we stop by our one bar in town and someone has there kids running around in between the pool tables and spinning around in the bar chairs while folks are drinking and using foul language. My daughter was not allowed to set foot in there until she turned 18. If she needed to get some money from me, I met her in the parking lot. I doubt she thought of the place as forbidden fruit. I know that I didn't as a teenager. I thought of being able to go into bars as a rite of passage...something you got to do when you became an adult.

Just a few thoughts about your post:

I didn't realize that it was legal for parents to buy alcohol for their kids in "a lot of" states. I remember you once telling me that was legal in WI, but I didn't realize it was legal in lots of other states as well. That's just a tid bit of info. that I find interesting because I was not aware of it before.

I do know that it is legal for kids to enter bars in some states already because I have lived in states where it is legal. However, though it is legal for kids to enter the bars in these states, there are conditions that apply to it. For one, although they can enter the bar, they can not be served or drink alcohol while they are there. Two, they must be with a parent or guardian while in the bar. Three, they can only enter, even with parent or guardian, before a certain time at night. Four, the only bars that allow this, even with all the above conditions met, are ones that have a menu and serve regular food, the entire family, including the kids may go there to eat. However, I think I'd flip if I seen a bar that allowed children to drink there.

My final thought has to do with this statement: "On one side, there are the arguments that not allowing kids in bars is making alcohol a "forbidden fruit" and actually encourages illegal drinking."

I believe that there may be a little truth to that statement. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that kids should be allowed to drink in bars. However, the second part of that statement, making alcohol a "forbidden fruit" and actually encourages illegal drinking, this part I can say from first hand experience is true for some kids. I drank practically every chance I got, any type of alcohol I could get my hands on, even if I didn't particularly like it, from the time I was 11 or 12yrs old until I was 21yrs old, just for the sake of drinking and getting away with something. Then, the day I turned 21 I just stopped, reason being, when it became legal, I didn't find any fun in it any more.

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Well...I'm so shy, y'know....

First, I'd give the parents an earful, loudly enough for all to hear, then I'd single out the barkeep & do the same, & if by that time the gendarmes hadn't hauled me off, I'd spit on the floor & leave in a self-righteous huf---wait a sec...what'm I doing in a bar at all?? I'm Eastern Orthodox Catholic! We drink, but we don't visit "occasions of sin!"

Well, never mind. Guess that's one fantasy I'll never get to live out.

Maggiepie
"WHERE'S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE?"

Well, I will say that I am not 21 yet, but my mom has been letting me drink with her and at family events or neighborhood parties for a couple years now. I don't think there is anything wrong with letting parents buy alcohol for their children's consumption inside their home because, let's face it, parents are going to do whatever the heck they want in their own home anyway. Also, I do think that my mom's attitude towards underage drinking has helped me stay away from it more than kids who are sheltered and are never allowed to try it.

That being said, I think allowing kids to go into bars would be an incredibly stupid idea. First of all, the parents cannot control the other people in the bars, and even if they and their children are being responsible, their might be other people who act inappropriately or violently. Children may not understand the behavior of other drunk people or they may perceive it as fun or funny. Plus, what about the other people in the bar? Especially if it is a higher class bar, I doubt the other patrons would want a bunch of kids running around. That sounds like a nightmare. Maybe if they were thinking about letting 18+ kids go to bars with their parents, but seven, eight, nine year olds? That's simply a ridiculous idea.