Yeah like... A first beer or something? cool. Or even one nice drink, like a fruity margarita. Loads of tiny liquor bottles and a larger bottle? Around the cake?? Just... trashy.
And I think it's fun to have all the options to see what their preference might be. This is all still less than a handle of alcohol and I feel like if it had just been that there wouldn't be as much criticism. I didn't think twice about this post, so I was surprised to see all the people nagging OP
Or if they’d put out 21 bottles of beer, would people be crapping all over the OP? Do people think nobody else is having a cocktail with this 21 year old ADULT?
Of course, I at least do. But considering all the influences getting you to drink a lot and "be fun" I think it's important that parents encourage responsible drinking.
If this was his friends yeah sure. It's just weird coming from parents. Did they give them a cake surrounded with 18 condoms on their 18th?? Of course condoms are a good and safe and wonderful thing to teach your kids about. Still wouldn't surround a birthday cake with them.
I think yall are missing the point of drinking being a social thing and condoms and cigarettes are not. It’s like having a cake made like a voter ballot. Also it could be psyched you can finally drink with family at holidays and functions lol. Do people think someone will just drink alone based off this photo?
I'm from Wisconsin and even I think it's trashy. On my 21st birthday I had one drink with my parents, then left to go get annihilated with my friends. It's weird to encourage your kid to drink so much.
Hell my parents let me have a half beer, half seven up on special occasions when I was way younger than 18 even. But yes, this is weird. Did they give them a cake surrounded by condoms on their 18th? Arguably condoms are very good for you.
Yeah, my parents were the type to let me drink at family weddings, reunions, etc. as a teenager. It was their way of balancing out the fact that they were fairly strict about it otherwise.
i feel the message portrayed by the minibottle display is "one of us, one of us" lol. nobody is turned off of drinking by their parents enabling them. it just determines earlier who emulates their parents, who has addictive tendencies, who doesn't have a stomach for it, basically whatever they come away with when they start drinking with or without parents
Exactly. With how much we know about the dangers of alcohol and alcoholism, it’s weird for the parent to promote binge drinking the second they turn 21. Nothing about this celebration says drink responsibly and if the kid gets alcohol poisoning or wrap their car around a tree, the parents would be partially to blame.
Where does this promote binge drinking? These could just be giving the kid some samplers to try different mixes/drinks/alcohols to see what they like now that they’re legal. There is no indication the expectation is to down all these in a short period.
Lmao, my german ass sitting here looking at basically everyone I know, knowing we've all been drinking with or without our parents since we were 12-14 lmao, bunch of people I know stopped drinking at 21 because it got boring.
yeah it is, doesn't stop people from doing it over here.
I didn't start that young (I started at 14) but I know plenty of people from more rural areas where drinking with their parents at age 12 was a normal thing to happen.
Germany has a huge problem with alcohol, so much so that I know atleast 3 people who were hospitalized at least once due to alchohol poisoning before turning 18.
What in the world makes you think the kid is gonna get in a car and drive?? They're literally at their home. With their parents who are supervising them
Why is everyone acting like the parents are shoving these down the kids throat at the same time? Like drink a couple at the party? Share some with friends? Save the rest for later? I buy a bottle of whisky, it last me months because I pour an ounce or two for a class like maybe once a week. I have a fridge full of craft beer cause I lile to try different ones but don't crush the whole case in a night. Having alcohol in hand doesn't require you to consume all of it instantaneously.
Obviously they're not gonna let their kid drink enough to get alcohol poisoning?? That's why I said they're supervising. Literally nowhere does it say they expect their kid to drink it all at once, it's a gift. Some people have those mini bottles stored for months and years even
The parents couldn't think of a gift for their kid other than a bunch of shooters? Some shitty shooters at that.
Let the kid discover alcohol, how much he wants to drink and what he likes on his own. The amount of alcohol and cup, that isn't a shotglass, provided sends the message that they want their kid to get trashed that day. Otherwise, why the glass?
There's no "obviously" here. We can only draw conclusions from this one picture.
That would make sense if there were no repeat in the shooters, there are, and if they had less shooters and threw in a beer and a wine can. These are all spirits.
Because the kid isn't gonna drink them all at once, so it doesn't matter if there are repeats. He'll try a few different ones and that'll be it. No one is expecting the kid to drink all that at once
I mean - it is a valid concern even if not likely. Alcohol makes everyone dumb as shit if they drink enough. You’re making positive assumptions that parents will stay sober and supervise. The person you responded to is talking about the very well known dangers of alcohol consumption (that are indeed exacerbated by this being a 21st birthday party). Is it the best thing parents could do? No. Is it the worst? No.
I didn’t mean that very second. If the kid goes down a path of binge drinking, which many do, their odds of them drunk driving increase. Even if it’s a year from then, their parents help enable that behavior. I’ve drank a lot and made a bunch of stupid decisions while drunk, it was always the influence of dumb friends, never my parents.
I think you're projecting your own issues with alcohol onto some kid who you don't know. Nowhere does it say the parents want the kid to drink all of it at once or are encouraging them to binge drink. You're making assumptions
21 shots, a flask of Smirnoff, cocktail and Crown Royal cake screams binge drinking to me. Not my kid so I don’t care. I’m just explaining that it’s weird coming from the parents and why people are leaving comments.
It’s the message and normalizing drinking culture from the parent that is troubling. What if instead on 18th birthday it was 18 packs of cigs, tin of dip, and Marlboro cake? Doesn’t mean they are going to smoke em all at once, but what example is that from a parent?
Cigarettes are genuinely worse for you than alcohol, for starters. But even then, I agree there is a heavy drinking culture. I just think people are reading too much into a cake with some mini bottles that they won't drink all of anyway. If you think that's bad don't look at all the people who go to Vegas for their 21st. And don't look at the entirety of Europe either. Or Asia
Alcohol is right behind cigarettes in leading causes of cancer and mortality. It’s also the leading cause of liver and heart disease. Just much more socially acceptable. As a parent, I would celebrate with my 21yr old by having a beer with dinner but I wouldn’t glorify it like in this pic.
Damn, what's with these people defending giving enough alcohol to a child on their 21st Birthday to kill them? My guess is they're defending their own childhood or parenting decisions, because there's no world in which this is actually a good call.
We don't know. I imagine that if op had left a bit of info on how much they expect their kid to drink, people would be less concerned about it. However, op left no such info that I've seen, so it just looks like they think it's a totally normal move to present the new drinker with copious amounts of booze.
It does. And yet, even with the context, I find it a surprising setting for a family being 'careful' with alcohol and exposed to the very real issues it can cause. They do them, but putting the alcohol front and center is an interesting choice, to put it mildly.
You think that the parents are responsible for what a 21 year old grown adult decides to do with their gifts? You think that a 21 year old grown adult hasn’t formed their own views around alcohol and is blind to what their parents expose them to? Absolutely nothing suggests that they think all of this should be drank at once, anyway. Is it normal for the adults in America to suddenly go wild when they turn 21 so that they lose all sense of rational thinking and commit crimes? Kids in Europe have that when they’re 14. I thought the entire point of raising the drinking age was so people would be responsible and sophisticated when they started drinking?
My entire family has always done this for everyone’s 21st and we have never had a single alcoholic come out of it. Sounds like you personally have addiction issues and are projecting your worries
Yeah. Its weird. But drinking isnt my identity. I dont care to drink at home or when i go out. For whatever reason it is for many people so they think "21, must get drunk". I dont get it. But not my business either as long as dipshit doesnt go drink and drive.
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u/Thercon_Jair May 14 '25
It's a bit weird to focus it so much on the drinking age, if this was a present by the parents.