Serving Your Kids Wine With Dinner (Preteens Excluded)

Oh boy is it heating up over on the New York Times website after this blog post asking readers when should you serve wine to your children (if ever) and should you ever do it in a restaurant?

To me typing here in Europe, the notion that your 17+ year old kids can't have a glass of wine with you when you go out to a restaurant is pretty crazy but it is the law and so every restaurant in the U.S. could be found liable for serving under age drinkers.

In the home though is a different matter. Like many children in Europe I was allowed to have a small taste of wine as a complement to my meal from about the age of 15/16 years old onwards.

Growing up in a household that celebrated wine as part of a meal and not as something regulated and "only for adults" demystified alcohol for me.

Having a glass of wine with a family meal didn't make me want to go and get hammered - that only happened once I had children of my own :)

What do you Gastrokid readers think? (We'll also be opening this corked topic up over on the Gastrokid Network).

- Matthew