Young Writers Society

How old were you when you first tried alcohol (if you ever have)?

One of the characters in my book is from France (now living in Toronto) and when she first moved to Toronto (when she's 11) she convinced her two friends to try a sip of wine. Now, I know 11 is young but where the French culture is slightly more lax about rules do you think this is believable? If not how old should they be when they first try alcohol?

I tried my first drink when I was like ten so I'd say it's believable

In the UK you can have alcohol as young as five as long as it's in your own home and with your parents supervision. I had sips of my dad's beer and grandparents wine when I was pretty young. Mostly they tended to enjoy the fact that we'd pull faces and complain that it tasted awful.

My cousins were given a sip of wine to try back when I was living with them, they were five and seven at the time. They then pretended to be drunk. It was very cute.

As for belivable, I guess it depends on the context. Is she sneaking wine out without her parents knowing? Are they being offered it as part of a meal? Why does she want her friends to try wine? Is it for the enjoyment or taste, or for them to try being drunk?

Definitely believable. Alcohol rules here are generally disregarded by the majority of the juvenile/teenaged populace. In elementary school, half of my friends were already drinking by seventh grade. Which puts them at what? Eleven/twelve?

If it's just a sip, then it's especially believable. How far they'd be willing to go with it after that depends on the character.

I drank cider once and thought a block of wood was my son.

AlexSushiDog wrote:I drank cider once and thought a block of wood was my son.

That's not something to be proud of, Alex! XD

I don't remember the first time I tried alcohol. My parents believe that if you teach your kids that alcohol in moderation is OK, you won't have them taking off with friends and getting in to those kinds of trouble.

There was one time that my mom poured me a glass of wine at my aunts house, and my brand-new uncle kind of gave me a funny look. XD I was thinking: "mom! I'm underage, and he knows that!!!"

I think it's a good thing to start kids off with a sip of alcohol at a young age.

Oh, definitely. Over here in France, kiddies are given watered down wine. I started having proper sips around 11, so totally realistic.

If she's Catholic, she'll have her first sip at the age of seven... though, technically, that's not really wine but Jesus' blood.

Children are exploitative, if they see adults doing it they want to try it, so even if the kid was 6 it would still be believable depending on how careless and casual the adults around her are.

I started mixing my grandmother's bourbon with gingerale at around 10. Heck, I've been smoking pot since age 12. It's realistic.

Holysocks wrote:

AlexSushiDog wrote:I drank cider once and thought a block of wood was my son.

That's not something to be proud of, Alex! XD

I don't remember the first time I tried alcohol. My parents believe that if you teach your kids that alcohol in moderation is OK, you won't have them taking off with friends and getting in to those kinds of trouble.

There was one time that my mom poured me a glass of wine at my aunts house, and my brand-new uncle kind of gave me a funny look. XD I was thinking: "mom! I'm underage, and he knows that!!!"

I think it's a good thing to start kids off with a sip of alcohol at a young age.

Pfff... Wasn't that much I'm just very light weight

Thanks for all the responses! They've been extremely helpful and unexpectedly funny

-Nicole