Alcohol

[Katie]

No: HPFGUIDX 177179

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Nickismom1228 at ... wrote:
>
> Hope it's okay to start a new thread here.  I have a question.  
Maybe 
> this as been discussed ad nauseam before I signed in. Why do you 
think 
> all ages of students drink in this series?  The students as well as 
the adults imbibe in Butterbeer, firewhiskey, etc.
> 
> Just wondered if any one else finds that disturbing.
> 
> Jeannie
>

***Katie:

I don't find it disturbing at all. I don't think butterbeer is very 
strong at all - maybe the equivalent of non-alcoholic beer (which has 
an infintesimal amount of alcohol). This is borne out by Winky's 
reaction to butterbeer, which shocks and surprises the Trio because 
it's so weak. 

As for firewhiskey - I don't believe any of the kids has that until 
book 6 - and they are 16 in book 6. In Ireland - I don't know about 
the UK - but in Ireland, that is the legal drinking age. So, at least 
in some civilized places in the world, 16 year olds drinking whiskey 
is perfectly ok. 

I personally think it is perfectly ok, but it's just that here in the 
USA, it happens to be illegal, and we as parents must of course 
respect that. My husband used to take sips of red wine at his big 
Italian family's get togethers when he was a little kid - I mean 7 or 
8 - and it ddin't hurt him any. I was allowed to sip wine or have a 
beer at Thankgiving by the time I was 17 or 18, and I'm not even a 
drinker now at all. 

I think it's a perfectly innocent and normal thing in the books, and I 
have no problem with it at all. Katie