One Thing We DON'T Have to Worry About

For the first time is several weeks, my son is staying on campus this weekend.

Even coming home most weekends, it did not take him long to realize that the statistics about underage campus drinking are pretty accurate. When he arrived home with his laundry for the Thanksgiving holiday, there was an empty beer bottle stashed at the bottom, courtesy of his roommate or one of his roommate’s friends.

On a Tuesday evening before a rare midweek holiday (Veteran’s Day), my son called around 9 PM and said he was “wandering aimlessly” because some girls had arrived at his room with alcohol and he didn’t want to get in trouble. I thought he’d be safe to go back by 10 and told him they would probably be gone by then. I found out the next day that when he had arrived back at his floor it was pretty much a free-for-all. He ended up leaving with a few other students until the atmosphere had quieted.

I would like to think it’s the solid values we’ve instilled in him, but I have to admit that part of the reason he’s not yet ready to drink is that he knows it’s illegal. Most college students (present company included) that live in the neuro-typical world don’t really care about the legal aspect as much as they do the “getting caught” aspect – the empty bottle salted away in the hamper.

Either way, he doesn’t drink yet; one less thing to worry about for now.