Is It Okay for Kids to Sip?

Learn about it early. I'd say sip at age 12 though if possible. Age 8 seems so young! I knew kids who drank at home with their parents (like a small glass of wine with dinner) and they had a much healthier attitude toward drinking than the kids who were barred from it totally.

I agree that if something is rendered categorically taboo, that makes it all the more titillating for a child. Live by example, as in, don't drink to destress or cover up emotions, and make sure your children understand the effects of alcohol on the body.

I remember being a little girl with my family in Germany and getting to "sip" the foam off the adults' beer. In different cultures, there's definitely a different attitude about exposing children to alcohol. When adults can teach responsibility by example, I think that's a good thing. When things are taboo for children, as they were for many of my peers in high school and college, those were often the ones who binged and "snuck" more alcohol than they should have in their teens and young adult years.

Well, I was born into the restaurant and bar scene...Mom was in the business for over thirty years. Hell, the first word I spoke wasn't Momma, it was "beer", as well documented by Mom and my siblings. My brothers use to slip beer into my baby bottle...when I flew sideways all over our beer joint in my four-wheeled walking trainer, they knew I was buzzed...laughing the whole time, rammin' the pool tables and jukebox, causing the records to skip.

I did. I don't have kids, but would probably let them do so.

I think the fact that most parents had no idea that their children were taking sips is quite scary. I do, however, favor the European approach to drinking, which is to introduce it to children at a younger age and with great moderation, so there is not an enormous taboo attached to drinking - something that I think leads to rampant binge drinking in American high school and college students.