Way back when.... Who remembers drinking their parents alcohol?
It's amazing what you'll admit to as a grown person to your parents, that you'll have never admitted to back in the day isn't it?!
Taking me back over 30 years now to being 15 years old, sneakily siphoning Malibu from my parents' alcohol stash. I used to pour a bit into a different container to take out with me and friends, and top the bottle up with water to not raise suspicion.
Naturally, the teen in me didn't realise in topping it up with water that every single time I stole a bit, I was watering it down even more for myself... I definitely got to a point where I was drinking just tap water, no doubt about that at all. My parents weren't huge drinkers so the ever-weakening alcohol went undetected for a very long time. I'm not sure if this ended up being a good thing or a bad thing though, to be honest. If they'd have found out they'd have replaced the alcohol sooner and I'd have had actual Malibu to enjoy, with its intended proof and not a watered-down version.
In conversations with others the siphoning of alcohol in the family home seems to be a pretty consistent running theme for teens - most people I know say "I used to do that too!" ... others would save their school lunch money for the weekend and ask a stranger to buy them a bottle instead which, in hindsight, was probably the better option.
What did you get up to back in your youth?
Having just turned 50 and looking back at the things we did and exposed ourselves to when we were teenagers it really is quite the miracle we're still alive isn't it ... something about our generation and drinking in dangerous situations makes me shudder. I like to think Alfie won't do the same when he's older, but at least if he tries to I will be wise to it, I guess.
Was that just a generational thing for us? Or is it something teens are still doing now? These days they seem to be more invested in taking care of their health and wellbeing than we were, I've had friends pre-teen daughters look at me like I have three heads when we talk about what we used to do, and you can just see their mentality lays elsewhere.
We used to sleep in fields and drink in parks or cemeteries, using hair spray to set make up, and they have self care sleepovers at friends houses, making sure they drink over 2 litres of water a day and prioritising their bodies by watching what they put into them. That was the absolute last thing on our minds as we took it in turns to swig from the same bottle, wasn't it?!
Oh the nostalgia. I don't think I'd do it any differently though, given the choice. Everything happened the way it did and every decision made has led me to where I am today. One changed decision and life would have taken me down a different path... I might never have met Michael, might never have had Alfie, and that's just a version of reality that's too hard to bear. So I think I'm quite glad for being a little reckless and stupid as a teen really.
What about you?