21 at 21 – Scary Idea
April 12, 2008 by Sherry Osborne
Filed under Parenting
Over at MomLogic, I read about a trend I hadn’t heard of before. It’s called “21 at 21″ and you can probably guess what it’s all about – drinking 21 alcoholic beverages to celebrate turning 21.
What a thought.
Where I live, the legal drinking age is 18 but that’s still pretty scary, the thought of celebrating it with 18 drinks. It’s the perfect set-up for alcohol poisoning.
I used to drink a lot when I was younger. I still enjoy a few glasses of wine or a good beer, but at my age (33) I can’t drink like I used to unless I want to feel like I was run over by a truck for at least the next 24 hours. Not to mention I’m too old to be amused anymore by the silly (or stupid) things you find yourself doing when you drink too much. But when I was a college student I could party like nobody’s business, and I’m actually a little surprised when I look back that I DIDN’T end up with alcohol poisoning or any other number of bad things that can happen to a girl who’s binge drinking.
Even so, I never went through 18 or more drinks. There was no way. I can’t even imagine how bad that must be.
I seriously hope that I can manage to instill enough responsibility in my girls that they don’t drink like I used to and that they definitely don’t celebrate their birthdays like this.
As a recent college student, I can tell you that this is more common than it should be. I knew people personally who thought that it would be a good way to celebrate their 21st birthdays and it just made me sick.
Like you, I cannot even FATHOM drinking that much! I’m not anti-drinking, but for me 5 drinks is more than enough…so 18 or 21? AH! Talk about a death trap.