How old were you when you first consumed alcohol?

[Blast!]

In light of my Blue Light Disco thread I think the results may make interesting reading.

Edit: I mean unsupervised drinking with your mates, not having a wee watered down glass of wine on a trip to France! :)

[unicorn]

I am not sure they will as times have changed so much. There are many statistics out there that tell us that children as young as 8 in the UK are drinking alcohol and being admitted into hospitals with alcohol poisoning. I was 14 and that was 20 years ago.

[starry]

I work with children this age and I would say that around half of them have tried drinking by the time they go into High School, by first year a worrying amount of them are drinking regularly.

I was 11, my cousin and I found a carry out outside a pub, we stole it and got so drunk we were sick for days.

By first year at 12/13 myself and most of my friends were drinking if we were going out, school / guides / youth clubs discos.

That was 30 years ago.

[the_count]

As a child i lived in a remote part of lincolnshire and my mother allowed us to try things in a controlled situation i.e. at home and we were always allowed a drink at christmas dinner (bucksfizz or sparkling wine) so it was never a mystery to us lol. Got legless at my aunts weddding when i was 11 and never looked back lol. But as for going out for a drink i think i was 14 when i had my first pint in a pub. :lol:

[honey]

id say there is a difference in "tasting" alcohol and trying to drink. When i was younger, it wasnt unheard of for parents to let their kids sip/taste something like snowballs at xmas time.. but i think at the age we were "tasting", kids are now getting bladdered!

[Blast!]

id say there is a difference in "tasting" alcohol and trying to drink. When i was younger, it wasnt unheard of for parents to let their kids sip/taste something like snowballs at xmas time.. but i think at the age we were "tasting", kids are now getting bladdered!

I think kids have been getting bladdered for decades, it's just easier to communicate it to us these days.

[Cattach]

Must have been a few months old - Whisky rubbed on my gums when I was teething!
Hardly ever touch it now - no teeth!!

[trix]

who on earth took drink when they were 10 years or under?? :eek:

'at is a disgrace!!!!

so maybe i got some 'finger drops' o' ma dads whisky at new year but would hardly class 'at 'consumption' o' alcohol....

someone i ken's, daughter wis blazin last weekend, lyin in a heap - age 14 an 'e lassie is fair delited wi hersel tellin 'e tale (so grown up eh?)

she's grounded but she's no exactly in much trouble :eek:

alcoholic in 'e makin if ye ask me...:roll: let the problems begin....

ma auld cheil wid o' takin 'e skin off ma bare erse at 'at age...

[_Ju_]

Unsupervised with mates: over 21.....Unless you count the time I drank some of my fathers beer and got tipsy age 3 ( apparently I liked the taste and my father didn't notice I was sipping it while watching him doing wood work).

[Tighsonas4]

its not so much a case of when did you take alcohol but the danger is alchol can take you and has taken many to the bottom tony

[Geo]

18 and you can read all about it here
http://www.hookeslaw.com/firstpint.htm

[gofor]

i got banned from a pub when i was 18 [ celebrating 18th birthday ] had been drinking there since i was 14. let me back in after 30mins and gave me a bottle of champnagne to celebrate with

[Oddquine]

I did nowt till I was of legal age! Too feart of my local cops and my parents.........so I was 18 before I tried alcohol and 16 before I tried cigs.

[lynne duncan]

2nd year of high school, remember trying to get into rosebank, and also going to dunbeath beach parties, but we had a good group of pals who looked out for each other and if someone had to much to drink they were taken home,
so that would have been 24 years ago.

[SNOWDOG]

First tasted alcohol when i was about six when my Dad left a nip unattended (he would probably get locked up for that now). First consumed alcohol at my Grannies when i was 15 (she thought sherry wasnt that strong). First got blootered in the Cellar Bar when i was 16 on Rum an Blacks (spewed my wringer outside Currys and nearly got lifted). Happy days! :D

[Amy-Winehouse]

I was 8 year old whenI first had booze, I only had 1 can of Harp Lager but I had nothing else till I was 12 then I really pushed the boat out & had 4 tins!!!

I was ok , but after that I had a taste for the stuff , unfortunatly:eek:

[helenwyler]

In France, aged 9 or 10 (1960s). Hot summer, last day of the holiday, we'd stopped off for a last lunch at a Les Routiers restaurant. For some reason my parents decided to let me have a little diluted white wine.

Apparently (I have little memory of it), I spent the rest of the journey to Cherbourg recumbent in the back of the car (no seatbelts then), with my feet perched up against the open window, singing salacious songs about schoolmates, to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers :eek:.

It was a one-off occurrence. I wasn't offered another alcoholic drink (by my parents) till my 18th birthday ;).

[Boozeburglar]

i got banned from a pub when i was 18 [ celebrating 18th birthday ] had been drinking there since i was 14. let me back in after 30mins and gave me a bottle of champnagne to celebrate with

Snap!

Just about, but I never got the shampoo, just trailed off to the Marine.

Oh the glory days of the Central...

:)

[starry]

I got two 12 year olds with me, both got drunk for the first time at 11.

[dellwak]

i got banned from a pub when i was 18 [ celebrating 18th birthday ] had been drinking there since i was 14. let me back in after 30mins and gave me a bottle of champnagne to celebrate with

Same thing happened to me in Viewfirth.
I had been drinking there since I was 15 and got kicked out and a 6 month ban on my 18th birthday.:roll:

[emszxr]

its one thing sneaking about for a drink at a young age, but i know of 13-16 year olds whose parents let them drink and we are not talking a wee shandy. i know of mothers who give their kids bottles of vodka to go to their friends houses with and get drunk. also parents who buy their kids falsi i.d's so they get served in bars.

[Venture]

its one thing sneaking about for a drink at a young age, but i know of 13-16 year olds whose parents let them drink and we are not talking a wee shandy. i know of mothers who give their kids bottles of vodka to go to their friends houses with and get drunk. also parents who buy their kids falsi i.d's so they get served in bars.

All I can say to that is if I knew them I know what I'd be doing about it.:eek:

[Blondie]

What do you do though? Last weekend i saw a group of underage girls heading to the north baths with their carry out which was bought for them by an older boy.
I knew some of the girls and know for a fact they were only 15.
I thought of reporting it and then I thought, is there any point .............. Last time police saw underage drinking they sat in their land rover for a few minutes then drove off, according to the letter that was in the groat a short time before hand.

Do these parents not wait up for there kids coming home? Where is the money coming from? Arent they asking and checking where they are all evening?

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

14.Hammered I was.Buckfast tonic wine.Followed by Merrydown cider...............lethal concoction.

[TBH]

Did ye get hammered twice, once by the drink and the other by your parents?

[oldmarine]

I was 17 years of age and just out of U.S. Marine Corps Bootcamp when I had my first beer. Didn't get drunk from two much consumption. My next 2 beers were after my first battle during WW2 in the Pacific theater of operations. Again, I was limited with how much I could drink. Went on to finish 3 more campaigns before the war was over. Thought I would be coming home after the war was over, but President Truman had other plans for me. I was sent to North China. Finally after 36 months overseas I was sent home arriving February 7, 1946 after leaving home on September 4, 1942. My government was good to me providing me with an engineering degree and the opportunity for a good career and a good retirement which provided myself and family good income. I learned to control my consumption of alcohol and it's a good thing. I am now a diabetic and must control my blood sugar which includes alcohol which is converted sugar. This I learned early enough in life to live to the age where I am now at 83 years. I was able to use my education and experience at the Thurso Naval Communications Station. Also, to tour Scotland & England plus many other places with my family.

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

Did ye get hammered twice, once by the drink and the other by your parents?

Aye.But only by one parent.I widnae change my young drinking habits,it was a group havin a laugh on a river.We never bothered anybody.We were experimenting,or so Lugs put it.

[TBH]

Aye.But only by one parent.I widnae change my young drinking habits,it was a group havin a laugh on a river.We never bothered anybody.We were experimenting,or so Lugs put it.It's been a right of passage for more years than I care to remember, we all did it.

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

It's been a right of passage for more years than I care to remember, we all did it.

Aye we all did and they still do.Have I ever been troubled or abused by an under ager wi drink....no.

[TBH]

Aye we all did and they still do.Have I ever been troubled or abused by an under ager wi drink....no.Whe I was a teen getting my first taste I think we were more a danger to ourselves than anyone else, crazy days, hilarious memories.

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

Whe I was a teen getting my first taste I think we were more a danger to ourselves than anyone else, crazy days, hilarious memories.

:lol:See I was never a danger TBH,cos when my mither told me to be in by 11,I was.Hammered or not.If I was later than 11..........well I cannae say what wid have happened....but I can imagine.

Should say that ma mither did say,"Ye've been at the river again".Always used to think she thought we were fishin for a trout.Two year back,we were bletherin about bygone days.I said to her if she thought we were fishing at the weekends."FISHING",she says,"Aye,right!!!":lol:

[TBH]

:lol:See I was never a danger TBH,cos when my mither told me to be in by 11,I was.Hammered or not.If I was later than 11..........well I cannae say what wid have happened....but I can imagine.

Should say that ma mither did say,"Ye've been at the river again".Always used to think she thought we were fishin for a trout.Two year back,we were bletherin about bygone days.I said to her if she thought we were fishing at the weekends."FISHING",she says,"Aye,right!!!":lol:Funny that, ma mither used till ask me the same thing.:lol:

[Tilter]

15. At a dance. I was elected to go buy drinks at the bar for my friends because, being the tallest, they thought I might look to the oldest. Was terrified. One drink lasted us all night. I think that's the difference now. We didn't have money for more and getting a drink was the excuse for being wherever you were. You had to get one, and then try and make it last all night. Easy enough as it tasted disgusting to me.

[SunnyChick]

I was 8 year old whenI first had booze, I only had 1 can of Harp Lager but I had nothing else till I was 12 then I really pushed the boat out & had 4 tins!!!

I was ok , but after that I had a taste for the stuff , unfortunatly:eek:


I think the real Amy Winehouse got onto much stronger stuff soon after 8 years! HA HAAA!


I remember caravan holidays when I was about 10, and being allowed to have a sip of advocat & lemonade. Yum!

4 years later it was whisky, vodka, bacardi, rum... whatever you could get your hands on all mixed together in a cruikshanks mini bottle (the ones which cost 10p). Pour out most of the fizzypop and pour in all the booze.

Tasted disgusting, but one bottle between two would give you half an hour of the giggles, and a few wobbles. Just enough dutch courage to ask the guy you fancied if he'd dance with you, right before you were sick all over him and passed out in the gutter. If you were lucky you still might get a kiss (if he'd drunk as much as you had....) or more likely, you'd be a laughing stock, until next time and someone else decided to be stupid! [lol]

I don't think that under-age drinking is a NEW problem, it's always been an issue.

[gardeninginagale]

My Auntie gave me a Babycham when I was eight, at Christmas. Went on to steal the show, and tell all the primary school jokes at the family party. Then learned the meaning of the word "embarrassment". Never lived that down.

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

My Auntie gave me a Babycham when I was eight, at Christmas. Went on to steal the show, and tell all the primary school jokes at the family party. Then learned the meaning of the word "embarrassment". Never lived that down.

Babycham.................the first dram I ever had at aboot 7,even had the pinkie oot when I was drinkin from the glass.Then I met Buckfast,the only drink where you have to say a prayer before ye drink it.

[Welcomefamily]

We always had a glass of grand dads farmhouse cider every Sunday lunch time and when we were helped with the harvest on a non school night which was a family affair they would always pass the jug around at the end of the day. We were only ever allow one glass.

[the second coming]

got the odd, very week shandy when i was a bairn, never touched spirits. was having the odd pint in the local when i was 15/16 but never out of order. when i turned 18 it was no big deal, but most of my mates went ballistic with drink which i thought was daft but it wasnt such a novelty with me. had my odd bad night but never anything too bad. now i just like a few drinks with mates, mostly in the house.

[Welcomefamily]

Theres a lot to be said for drink not being a novelty, when ever we eat I have always let my kids have a drink once they were 14 and none of them ever have gone mad on it when they got older.

[Anne x]

I am certainly getting old !!! 90% of the people taking part in this poll have been and are underage drinkers and the younger figures are just shocking I wondered at first if people voting were just trying to shock and be blaize
but from my experiences today I think most probably NOT I met children of no more than 15 out of there heads and my comfort zone on drink and whatever lying about Town smoking loud mouthed Girls half naked taking the mick out of a poor wee overweight boy
I just wondered where did those kids parents think they were or what they were doing or mostly the company they were keeping

[Angela]

I remember being given well watered wine with meals when I visited my French penpal's family. Ahhh........these far off days...we actually wrote letters to each other!:eek: I'd have been 14.

At family gatherings such as weddings I was allowed a small glass of wine or champagne from 15 onwards. There was very little drinking in my family -strictly special occasions only. Plenty of smoking though - I was allowed to smoke when I was 15! Fifteen was the school leaving age at the time and I expect that had something to do with it being considered grown up.

I would sometimes have the odd forbidden half of lager in the pub with friends when I was 16 going on 17, but when I went to Uni I was still too young to get served in the union bar :roll: so I'd very seldom drunk alcohol - and certainly no spirits -until I was over 18.

[trix]

me an ma pal knicked a bottle o' trawlers rum when we were 14, no til say we wis blazin.....

since at day iv never bin able til put rum near ma mooth....yuk!

cana stand 'e smell o' 'e stuff.....

[Anne x]

I am the same about whisky my 21st Birthday Party consumed so much and was sick canna stand the smell of it since and that wisna yesterday och bad memories but great 21st I think !!![lol]