I've given a lot of thought to this. My mother has let me have alcohol in small amounts occasionaly at a party at my house for a few years now. Also, when we go to weddings I'm allowed to drink as well, in moderation. I have no desire to drink more then that and even when I'm at weddings I chose not to drink even though I'm allowed to. As was pointed out, Europe doesn't have the same problems the US does with drinking. That's because their drinking age is lower or non-existant in some countries. That makes drinking not so cool. It's not some big thing you have to wait for but don't want to. It's always available to you so it's no big deal. It's like, if you had to wait until you were 10 to eat, wouldn't you want to sneak bits of food before that? Ok maybe that was a dumb way to put it.