Well, tomorrow is my 21st birthday. It’s also the first day of my last year of school, but luckily I only have one class. I’m kind of excited since this year it falls on 09/09/09. Random fact about me that I’ve announced like 20 times on this blog already; I was born on the 9th day of the 9th month at 9′o’clock and I weighed 9 pounds. It’s really too bad I’m not turning 99 tomorrow, or 9.
Anyways, moving on. After a year of reading blogs, many of them written by American’s, I’ve come to find that the 21st birthday is a huge milestone. Most people ask what their first legal drink should be, or what they should do to celebrate, but for me it’s really not that big of a deal since I’ve been drinking, legally, since I was 18. So I’m going to talk about drinking, and legal drinking age today.
My first year after high school I went to college in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Part of my decision was influenced by the fact that it was only three hours from home, the other part was because it was in Alberta, where the legal drinking age is 18. Only nine days after moving into the dorms there I was able to go to the bar, order a drink at a restaurant, and buy booze at the liquor store. I celebrated my 18th birthday by going to every bar in town - including the strippers and the casino. Quite exciting for someone who had just moved out of her mom’s house.
The following year I turned 19 and was officially legal in my home province of BC and all over the rest of Canada (as far as I know). So, for three years now, I have been going to the bar, ordering drinks in restaurants and picking up bottles of wine on my way home from work. No problem. And why should it be? I vote, I drive, I pay bills and taxes.
What I want to talk about today, is what the legal drinking age should be, not what it is.
I know it’s different all over the world; when we went to Germany last summer my 16-year-old brother was able to order a beer no problem. Yet, in the USA, you have to be 21 to do so. To me, that seems kind of silly. I haven’t lived at home since I was 18 and I can’t imagine not being able to go out for drinks when I want to or have the ability to grab a bottle of wine on my way home from work.
What do you guy’s think? Especially the American readers that are out there? Personally, I think that 18-19 is a good age for people to be able to start legally drinking and ordering booze. Most kids are paying bills and voting by then, if that doesn’t make you an adult what does?
Weigh-in in the comments!
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi! US citizen here! I am kind of back and forth on this subject. It seemed like it was going to take FOREVER to reach 21! A lot of the people i’ve known were NOT ready for the drinking responsibility at 21! They would drink and drive, drink to the point of alcohol poisoning, and never stop. It was just horrible. However, I’ve also known others who drank responsibly at 18 or 19(their parents being the providers). They set rules for themselves, i.e. a container for all keys that was given to the sober person for safe keeping and such.
I do believe that if you are paying bills, paying taxes, holding a job and are responsible you should be allowed to drink at 18!!
It all just depends on the responsibility factor with me. At 18, you’re considered an adult and that should go for all aspects of adulthood. Not just picking and choosing which adult behavior should be legal and illegal.
Same here. It’s 18 in NZ, however we have a really bad binging culture. I don’t know what the answer to that is - it’s certainly not RAISING the age like many people are calling for, it’s more a cultural mindshift that’s needed.
My parents are teetotallers and they were strict as hell. Most everyone I knew got to have the occasional drink at home or on special occasions - nup, not me, not ever. I moved out at 17 and although I didn’t go wild, I did drink quite frequently that first summer away. So while I didn’t go crazy like you might have expected (I learned after the first time I puked from drinking), I definitely resented my parents’ total inability to budge - not just on alcohol, but on a whole host of other things, which caused me to move out while I was still in school.
Oh, such a great topic! I always thought it was silly that Quebec`s legal drinking age was 18 and every other province was 19 (I had no idea Alberta was the same as Quebec, thx!)
I think that it all depends on the person, and not so much their age, which makes it really hard to pin an age on the whole thing. I almost think the drinking age should be universal because a 20 year old can be travelling and not be able to have a glass of wine with dinner in the states.
Great topic! I totally agree with you on the voting/ paying taxes therefore being old enough part. I’m from Germany and here, in fact, the drinking age is 16 (for hard liquor it’s 18 though), whereas the driving age is 18. So I went and got my driver’s license in the US at 16 and went back to drink and drive at 16 (no, NOT at the same time of course) in Germany. So far, I never considered it a problem here (none of my high school friends turned out to be an alcoholic…), and to be honest, I think having to wait til you’re 21 is really ridiculous. If you’re old enough to make a conscious decision about who you want to lead your country I think you are old enough to decide to have a drink or not. I think it’s also a question of culture - in countries such as France or Italy it’s quite normal to have a glass of wine with your meal every night, whereas in other countries this might already raise a lot of eyebrows.
not touching the drinking thing
BUT happppy early bday!!
i think if you’re allowed to sign up for the military at 18, or they draft you into the military at 18 years old.. therefore you should be able to drink.
I started drinking at 18. but drinking wasn’t a huge thing to me. I didn’t see the point so much (though not a lot of teens were like me!) but I drank. both my sisters started drinking at probably 15 or 16 years old. I didn’t see the point, mostly cuz my dad always had a drink most of every night, so it wasn’t like ohmygod i have to have a drink.
I will say that it took me going to europe at 21-22 to really start appreciating wine and beer. i absolutely appreciate their culture.
there’s so much i could say about this. but happy early birthday (I cannot believe you’re only turning 21, you are indeed wise beyond your years!!!!)
I’m a U.S. citizen, and I’m under twenty-one. (I didn’t even REALIZE we were the same age; well, I’m a little younger. I’ll be twenty-one in December.) However, I’ve been on my own since I was eighteen and married since I was nineteen. It’s really hard to judge the drinking age, though. I mean, I know I could handle drinking responsibly at my age, but there are some people I know that are twenty-one and aren’t responsible enough.
Sometimes, though, it drives me crazy. Husband is nearly twenty-three, so he has been drinking legally for almost two years … so when we go out, he’s able to get a drink, but I can’t. It would be nice to be able to go out and get a drink with my husband every once in a while! Luckily, I’ve got less than three months to go… (And then I’m hitting up Longhorn Steakhouse for their Firefly vodka drinks.)
Oh, yes. Happy birthday tomorrow!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAV REDHEAD!!!!!
Good question. I do think it is kind of silly that our drinking age is 21. You can do so many other things at a much younger age. Like drive. Vote. Buy cigarettes. Etc. And I think by having our drinking age so much later than other countries, it makes drinking into this forbidden thing. And for most people, there is something so attractive about being able to do something that is forbidden. As a result, I think alot more binge drinking occurs.
Happy Early Birthday to you, my dear!!!
i think 21 is ludicris. absolutely one of the most idiotic regulations we have here in the states. On top of that, in the southern US we have blue laws where alcohol can’t be sold on sundays. Recently, my state opened up restaurants to serve beer & wine (but not liquor) on sundays, but you still can’t stop off at the store and pick up a 6 pack to drink while watching the NFL games that afternoon. it’s absurd.
Mark it down as one more thing that Canada gets right and the US screws up. Just like healthcare and democracy. OMG.
Amber, I totally agree with you! 18-19 is good. I mean the age might be 21 in the States, but everyone ends up drinking before! And you’re right, it’s nice to be able to go out for a drink without having to worry about age!
Happy pre-birthday btw!
Living in the U.S….
Honestly, I go back and forth on the issue, but believe the drinking age should stay at 21. My main reason is most 18 year olds here are still living at home or just moved out of their parent’s house… so, I don’t consider them to be actual adults at that age. For example, my little sister just turned 18, has just started college, and still lives at home… Do I think she’s mature enough to decide when to drink and how much? Nope. I remember back when I was 18 and how careless I was (and I was a great kid btw) and I can’t imagine what would’ve happened had I been able to drink legally.
Now, I do think that our soliders who are 18 should be able to drink. Why? For the simple fact that they’re old enough to put their lives on the line for our country, so why not let them be old enough to make the decision on whether to drink.
I don’t think the drinking age here is a huge deal. I think most Americans just accept that they wont be able to legally buy alcohol till they turn 21 and just move on with life.
As far as not being able to buy alcohol on Sundays (in the previous comment), I think it’s accepted and people should just get over it and hit their liqour store on Saturday night… that’s what most of the Southern drinking population does! geez!
happy birthday!
i don’t really know how i feel about the drinking age debate. in the us, it’s 21, but the majority of people start drinking (illegally) way before that. i know i did. we’d get alcohol from older friends, parents, etc. and would drink and get really stupid and crazy. so i don’t know if that necessarily means we should lower the drinking age because i don’t think many 18 year olds can responsibly drink and handle their liquor. but i’ve also heard that many countries that do have an 16 or 18 year old drinking age have fewer problems with it because people learn to be responsible about it at a young age.
First of all, happy birthday.
My thoughts are that if you can drink, and GET MARRIED, and vote, etc etc, then you should be able to drink. Either increase the legal age on everything else, or lower the drinking age.
Marriage SHOULD be for life. How could getting married have a LOWER legal age than DRINKING? That doesn’t make sense to me.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with the drinking age being 21. I waited until I was 21 to drink. It wasn’t that hard for me. I really didn’t have much of a desire to drink because my mother is an alcoholic and I didn’t want to turn into that.
However, most people don’t wait until they are 21 even though it is illegal otherwise. I don’t think it is a deterrent for most people; they just get a fake ID, have a friend buy alcohol, steal it from their parents, etc etc. Part of me thinks that maybe people would drink more responsibly if it wasn’t a “forbidden” thing until they were 21. But the other part of me thinks that probably wouldn’t happen either! I think it would be fine for an 18-year-old to have a glass of wine or a beer occasionally, in other words, to drink responsibly. I just don’t think most people that age are responsible. Our culture is one of irresponsibility and excess– I know so many people who have gotten DUIs and I see it every week when I do the police blotter! Because so many teenagers already drink and party, I don’t think lowering the drinking age would have a dramatic increase on the number of these incidents. To me, the issue is not when we are allowed to drink, but how we drink and how our society plays into that.
Anyhow, that’s my two cents. So I guess I don’t really have a definitive answer on whether the drinking age should be lowered or not here in the U.S. But I do agree that it would seem only logical if you can already vote, drive, pay bills and taxes, get married, smoke, etc. I would say though that I don’t think our law in this regard is founded on what makes sense but what is “moral”or “right” … does that make sense?
anyhoo, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW! I hope you have a great day and do something fun!
I absolutely believe it should be lowered to 18. It’s ludicrous that one can join the military, vote and be SENTENCED TO DEATH and yet not be allowed to drink alcohol. 18 =legal adult, regardless of what people think of the maturity level. The law and government look at that individual as a legal adult, being a legal adult means making your own choices and if you abuse alcohol, obviously you get punished. I actually wrote an entire paper on this issue when I was taking my basic skills test for teaching.
Of course I don’t have the proof to back this up but we were taught in various health classes throughout high school & college that the age is 21 because there are still parts of the brain & liver that haven’t developed, even at 18. That could be BS or refuted now, but that’s what I remember learning.
I didn’t have a family that drank wine with each meal, or friends who were into drinking in high school so I didn’t mind that 21 was the drinking age. I didn’t get it necessarily, but it never bothered me. I tried a few fake IDs here and there but was too much of a pansy to try it on multiple occasions. Thank goodness for house parties in college!
I’m with you 100%. If you’re old enough to die for your country in battle, you are old enough to order a goddamn beer at a bar, IMHO.
I couldn’t agree more. I think it’s silly that in the States legal drinking age is 21 when we can vote or join the military at 18. I honestly think that America baby’s kids (mainly parents) and they need to learn responsibility at an earlier age, not a later age.
First off, happy early birthday!!
Second, I do think the drinking age in America is an interesting topic. There’s also the fact alcohol has always been some sort of an issue in America. I’m pretty sure America was one of the few countries that went through prohibition. I do think that people by having a law saying you can’t drink till you’re 21 it only makes people want to drink more. It is interesting to look at a European society where there aren’t nearly as many restrictions, but there isn’t nearly as much binge drinking. People in other countries drink for enjoyment, while I think people (mainly college aged ones) in the US drink to get drunk. Its an interesting topic all around I’d say
Happy (almost) birthday!!!!!!
I don’t drink so it’s never really been an issue for me… but I’ve debated on the topic with friends. I don’t think there is a clear answer, unless it was all individually based. haha! Some people are mature enough to be able to drink at 18, and let’s face it, some just aren’t, and may never be. *sigh*
It depends a lot on where you live. In Houston, we are so spread out that you have to drive everywhere, there isn’t enough transit to get you around safely and it might not get you all the way home. So there are some holes in the system, but I know there is a large group of people that wouldn’t be able to handle it at 18. They can barely handle driving at 16. I would hate to see them drunk behind the wheel at 18 and I think we would see more of that. However, there is a lot of underage drinking, so all you need to find is a house party and a red plastic cup and you are set. Its just weather you get caught or not. For me, it was too big of a risk and I didn’t care about it enough to take the risk and end up paying the money to get myself out of trouble.
I’ve always thought the drinking age should be lowered here in the States to 18. Most of us drank before we were 21. I agree with LiLu!
Happy Birthday tomorrow!!
Happy Birthday Tomorrow Amber!!!
Great topic!! I haven’t read you blog in SO long… have some serious catching up to do.
Anyway - I think that drinking should be legal around 16 ish, and getting your drivers licence around 18. Then you know what its like to be loaded and you know that you CAN NOT do it when your driving. And this coming from a girl who grew up in a house where alcohol was forbidden as my Dad has been a recovering alcoholic for 24 years and counting (so proud).
PS. Every birthday is a great one, we are celebrating the day you were brought into this world and we are blessed to have you!
xox
Coxy.
Hmmm, I’m not sure. 18 makes sense since it’s when people start college and start drinking anyway. I think people might be more responsible about drinking if they knew it was legal…it might lose the allure and save a lot of freshmen bad nights and sticky situations.
i lived in alberta when i was 18, so like you, i’ve been legally able to drink since then. 21 seems ridiculous. you’ve been driving for 5 years. and in college for 3, yet not able to have a beer? and, the people who are too immature to be drinking at 18/19, are likely going to be just as, or nearly as immature at 21. i’m obviously all for the legal age being in the 18/19 range.
As mentioned by many others, I think if you’re old enough to drive, vote, get married and fight for your country you should be able to drink! It seems ridiculous to make it this taboo thing that requires you to be three years older than other ‘adult’ activities. Essentially you are an adult at 18 so it seems wrong to not get all the rights people of age 21 have.
My parents have always been relatively open about drinking and I’ve never had a problem with alcohol. In fact I think most people I know who binge-drink etc are the ones who had the strictest parents growing up and there is a rebellious element to drinking. It seems to me that the more exposure one has to alcohol (I mean discussions and small sips of wine or beer at 17 and 18, not allowing kids to drink at 13 or to excess!) the less likely they are to view it in a way that makes them act stupid and overindulge.
That’s just my opinion. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I think the drinking age here is ridiculous. I hate to repeat a cliche, but if you vote or (more importantly) fight in a war, then you should be able to drink. On top of which, kids do it anyway and I think we make things worse by making drinking such a taboo.
I think the whole drinking age debate goes far deeper than just a number, it’s about the perceptions of drinking as a whole.
I know, as a teenager growing up in Ontario, part of the appeal of drinking underage was that it was not allowed. From those I’ve met in my travels, Europeans for example, drinking is not such a big deal because they were taught about it responsibly as a glass of wine at dinner or whatever. Not that it was something bad, but they were able to have a taste and feel how it affected them. Part of the appeal of drinking here seems to be the danger, how badass it is to use a fake ID and risk getting caught. Once you’re of age, alcohol isn’t nearly as enticing.
You’re going to have immature jerks who abuse alcohol (and other drugs) no matter what age they are. I agree that if you’re able to fight for your country, or vote, you should be able a sip now and then.
I sort of have the same feelings on drinking that you do. I live in the US, I’m 20, so I can’t legally drink. I can, however, legally have my own apartment, pay my own bills, have my own credit card, vote, fight and die for my country, and do any number of other important things. So I, too, don’t understand why our drinking age is 21. Yes, there are some people who would drink irresponsibly at 18. There are also some people who drink irresponsibly at 45. I feel that if the government wanted to really cut back on alcohol-related accidents and issues, they’d do better to lower the drinking age and have law enforcement focus on stopping drunk drivers rather than dragging 20-year-olds into jail for having a glass of wine. That’s just a waste of effort, in my opinion.
~Amanda