Many 13-18 year olds I know have me and most of my age cohort beaten by a wide margin in terms of the maturity we displayed at that age and our awareness at that time of what real life is and what it requires from a citizen of the United States. With my three children I believe a change back to 18 in the drinking age would improve my ability to relate to them as adults at a critical time (newly voting, newly eligible for draft, finally emerging from the K-12 cocoon) when they are exposing themselves to the standards and expectations of the wider world and learning first hand how they measure up.
Pretty much the entire world has a drinking age of 18. It’s the age of adulthood. If nothing else, lowering the age to 18 might go a long way to accepting that our 18 year old’s are adults, and not the perpetual children that we treat them as. It’s no wonder our homes are full of 20-30 year old’s with their failure-to-launch issues.
I’m not saying that drinking will somehow change things for the better, but for God’s sake, let start having them act as the adults.
