Parents that can't get over the fact that you drink.

[sighyoung]

I lucked out--I have a older brother who constantly fought with my parents, and a twin brother who would drink to excess. The secret to my success in life has always been to look good in comparison to someone else.

Accordingly, my parents didn't ask me many questions. They knew I would grab something to eat before I would head out with friends, but to this day never figured out that I did so to slow down the metabolism of alcohol.

Additionally, I was prone to stomach viruses, so my parents didn't associate my occasional stomach problems with the previous night's debauch.

[JL21]

The secret to my success in life has always been to look good in comparison to someone else.

Hmmm.... methinks you and the Reverend Al have something in common.

[phins]

well -- the fact that there is some history of complaining about the drinking adds some baggage to the anecdote...

but if someone came to pick me up to drive me somewhere and i could smell alcohol, i think it would be within my rights to inquire about their sobriety. it's my life at stake. its a reasonable question, and if someone asked me i'd say something like, "well i had ___ drinks over the course of about __ hrs, and its been ___ hrs since my last drink..."

in general i think it takes an hour to burn off each drink. so if you have no more than 1 drink an hour you are good to go 1 hr after your last drink. Legally, you are okay before that, you may not even go over the limit with 1 drink per hour.

most people are drunker than they realize... especially when you have come down from your maximum drunkness level to some lower level, it is very hard to tell how drunk you are. a general rule of thumb is that for every drink above 1 drink per hour, you need an extra hour to wait to drive. So 4 drinks in 2 hours? wait 2 hours after your last drink to drive. 6 drinks in 2 hours? wait 4 drinks after your last drive to hour. are we cl--clear on thish?

concerning smelling the alcohol, if you have alchohol in your system, you sweat it out your pores. like any smell that you are exposed to for a long time, you become at least a little desensitized to it... the brain learns to filter it out so it can smell other things.

I hate how smart Statman is, but he is spot on with this entire post.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

My parents were in denial about my behavior in high school. They were always soft about when I had to be home. The only rule was if it was after midnight I'd have to call. If I wasn't sober I'd just get a friend to call to say I'm staying at his house.

They, of course, knew I was up to no good but they could never catch me so they stopped trying. I guess, they stayed off my back because my grades never suffered and I never did anything too stupid that they found out about.

I prefer their approach. It may not work for everyone but it worked for me. I learned from my own mistakes and I like to think I've turned out alright. I'm on track to graduate from college in May and have generally stayed out of trouble.

So, yeah, I turned 21 a month ago and it isn't wierd to drink around my parents who don't really drink.

I agree. There's nothing wrong with drinking if you're not driving or getting addicted to it....and living a productive life as well.

My parents stayed off my back b/c my grades were immaculate, I had a job and didn't bug them for money, and I played sports year round. I mean, if you live responsibly, shouldn't that gain you the freedom to do what you want. Who is to say if they had tried to stop me I wouldn't have put the middle finger up, quit going to work, and quit doing schoolwork just for spite. Probably not the schoolwork thing b/c I wouldn't want to f-up my future, but I definitely could have seen quitting work and just asking for money all the time to do things they would have approved of such as going to the movies, out to dinner with friends, etc...