Parents and Teen Drinking

Many parents believe it is safer to allow their teenager to drink at home where they can keep a watchful eye rather than allow their child to attend a party where alcohol may be served. These parents may provide alcohol to their child's friends as well. Although there are laws that very from state to state that makes the parents providing the alcohol to the teens, responsible for any accidents cause by the intoxication of the teens. Even if parents are not home when the drinking occurs, if it was on their property, they may still be held responsible.

Joshua A. Levine, a then junior at Brandeis University, published an article in the Boston Globe on November 20, 2004, pleading with parents to introduce alcohol at home. "Ensure they are safe," he wrote, "but also guarantee that they know what they are doing. Please introduce them to alcohol before they go off to college so that, on the first weekend, they don't drink themselves into the ER."