It's so hard to know what the right thing to do is when it comes to this. My parents were separated and when we lived with Dad he had a zero tolerance for it - so what did I do? Sneak around behind his back and drink it and because he was an interstate truck driver there wasn't much he could do to stop me, especially when his wife brought it for us Mind you I was only 13 at the time. When we moved back with Mum, she didn't like it, but knew that if we were determined she couldn't stop us, so she started letting me drink at 15. I did have a few benders, but because I was 'allowed' to drink, it took the novelty away so I may have drank a little, but never a lot.

I think the key issue that we face as parents, is that there is such a huge binge drinking culture these days, definitely worse than it was when I was a teen, that we need to educate them about responsible drinking rather than prevention of drinking, so that if they are 16 and out with friends, that they might have the commonsense to stop when they have had a few instead of keep drinking till they pass out. Luckily we live out of town, so the temptation wont be there to do it every weekend but i would like to think that when they do drink, it is in moderation.