I was pretty lucky with my children as they never drank when they were kids. In fact my son to my knowledge has not had an alcoholic beverage to this day and he is 40. If one of your kids, say they were 14 or 15, came home obviously inebriated, how do you think you would handle it?
I was lucky, too. As far as I know, my son never drank until he was of age and has never done drugs. He drinks now, but never to excess - I think he's been drunk maybe once - and felt so bad, he doesn't want to do it again. As to your question -w ell, I certainly wouldn't do much that night, when they're drunk. And they better not have been driving. But the next morning, I'm afraid I would have to cook something nice and greasy and smelly. And then be as loud as I could - make them as miserable as humanly possible. Then we would have "the talk". I know that you can't control your teenager's behavior, unfortunately, they are going to do what they want. But, a little education and a lot of talking may help. I would even consider taking them to an emergency room on a Friday or Saturday nithg and show them what happens to drunk drivers. I remember in High School, every year they would bring in a car that had been involved in a fatal drunk driving accident and make us look at it. With my son, I showed him the research - and since it came from a scientific source, he believed it better than just listening to me. The studies show that almost 95% of all addicts (whether alcohol or drugs) wish they could stop, but only 5% are actually able to remain sober for 1 year. Being the logical person he was, I asked him, "If 95% wish they could stop and only 5% can, why would you take the chance of getting addicted in the first place??". That really seemed to hit home with him.
That is great advice, Mal! I know when my kids started playing hooky, I took them on a tour of Los Angeles Skid Row and told them that if they never finished school this is where they would live. Did not work too well, but my daughter wound up with a great job and my son is doing very well producing music!
Yeah, we always told my son, when he was younger, whenever we saw someone doing a really nasty job, like digging ditches in the 90 degree heat, "If you don't get a good education, that's the job you're going to have.". It seemed to work, he always got great grades, and is now pursuing a PhD while teaching classes.