Legally speaking, teenagers are not allowed to drink until they are 21 years old. Realistically, underage drinking happens every day. Teenagers drink in high school and in college. This is one of the most common violations of the law at this age.
Some parents will push back against this by having very strict rules for their teenagers. But other parents will have more lenient rules and may not punish children for underage drinking. The reason is that they believe having such strict rules could actually cause drunk driving.
How the two are connected
One woman explained that putting excessively strict rules on her children just meant they wouldn’t talk to her about how they had broken those rules. She didn’t feel that being strict would actually change their behavior. It would just make them hide it.
In terms of underage drinking, this may mean that children would be more likely to try to drive themselves home, even if they were impaired. If a teenager knows that their parents are going to be very angry and enforce a strict punishment on them for drinking, they may be willing to take the risk on the road to try to avoid that punishment.
Conversely, if parents have less strict rules, then teenagers may feel more comfortable calling them for a ride home if they know they’ve had too much to drink.
A complex situation
Things like this can get very complicated. Parents don’t want to tell their children to break the law and drink underage, but they also don’t want to encourage them to do dangerous activities like driving under the influence. Parents of teens who are facing charges in either of these areas need to know exactly what criminal defense options they have.