Is it legal in most states for a parent to give a child alcohol within a private residence?

Which country.

In the United States, yes.

In most of the states, it is illegal to give a minor alcohol. In some states it is legal for a parent or guardian to give alcohol to a minor in some situations.

In the United States, no.

Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor

“Any action by an adult that allows or encourages illegal behavior by a person under the age of 18, or that places children in situations that expose them to illegal behavior. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor can be as simple as keeping a child home from school and thus, making the child a truant. It also can manifest itself in more serious behavior. For example, an adult who commits a crime in the presence of a child can be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, as can an adult who serves alcoholic beverages to anyone under the legal drinking age. Still more egregious is sexual exploitation, which could include having sexual relations with minors or engaging in the production or trafficking of Child Pornography.”

Thanks Ryan.

@westriverat Source?

@johnpowell From my link: “Furnishing alcohol to one’s own children is permitted in 31 states.” 31 out of 50 is definitely the majority. Note that these laws are passed as exceptions to other laws, meaning they superseded things like what you posted.

Some states yes, some no according to this chart. In my current state, WV, it’s illegal. In my prior state, MD, it’s legal.

@SavoirFaire :: It would have been nice if that link was in your original response. And all I gather from the link is that it is OK if the kid is over 18. Did I miss the part about a 13 year old given a sip of wine at dinner?

Personally, it’s a little confusing. A kid can get behind the wheel of a car when he’s 16, carry a weapon and get a license to kill at 18 – vote – thus deciding his country’s future – but can’t drink. I think Canada and most European countries (and Israel) have it right – 18 should be the legal age.

Here’s some more relevant information. It seems most of the exceptions are for parental consent, on private property or for religious purposes. I’m not seeing any specific ages mentioned, just ‘underage’.

@zen I agree. Either make the drinking age 18, or the war age 21.

@zen And a shockingly high amount of us agree with you. On the upside, should anyone go to a bar in military fatigues, it is customary to not card anyone, especially if they go with their unit and/or CO.
I know that, the law aside, if you’re giving a kid a glass of wine or champagne on big holidays, especially on New Year’s Eve, it’s sorta a ‘Look the other way’ kinda thing.

@MyNewtBoobs My kids are 19 and 17. Only one gets the wine at the holiday table. The other has no problem with that.

@zen I was always allowed a tablespoon – right from the measuring spoon – of champagne on NYE, should I want it. However, both my parents like extra dry wines, and I hate dry wine, so after a couple years, I stopped asking. However, I had one years ago at the charity premiere of Attack of the Clones that tasted like lobster butter. I have no idea what it was, but omg do I want another glass.

@johnpowell The original post was edited almost immediately. Nor is it unreasonable for me to expect other people to do a bit of independent research before making their own assertions. Looking at my link and the one provided by @augustlan, however, I do not see where you are getting the view that these laws only apply to those between the ages of 18 and 21. Indeed, if you look at the references section of the Wikipedia article to which I linked, you’ll see that the source used in that article does not mention any age qualifications.

This does not mean that none of those laws are limited in such a way, of course, and you are free to scour through the laws to find which ones might have such qualifications. The site linked to by @augustlan provides PDF versions of the laws in question. Those I have checked do not limit alcohol consumption to those between 18 and 21.

In Canada, it is illegal to give or sell alcohol to a minor. A minor is anyone under the age of 18 or 19 (depends on the province).

As far as I know :)

In the UK it’s illegal to give a child under 5 any alcohol. Over that age, sensible parental discretion can be applied, although government guidelines state that it’s inadvisable for under 15s to drink any alcohol at all.

The link I found confirms it is legal in 30 states for parents to provide alcohol for their underage children. It goes on to point out that serving alcohol to anyone underage other than their own children is illegal. The part that freaked me out a bit is the part where it says, ”...in the remaining 30, parents may choose to provide their children with alcohol at any age.” Yikes!

Funny story on this subject. Back when I was in college a buddy of mines frat was having a big reunion/get together party on one of the Football Saturday’s. They had a bunch of alum members back and all of the current in school members as well. Well local police had been busting down on game day underage drinking (A colossal waste of money, but that’s another story all together) and they showed up at this party at that frat house (a private residence). They carded everyone and started arresting all the under 21’s in the crowd for under age drinking, and being huge dicks about it. Well suddenly one of the older alums comes up, points to one of the kids being walked away in cuffs, and says “You’re not arresting him.” One of the cops gets right up in the guys face and starts shouting at him “He was drinking under age and thats against the f*cking law you jack***, so yes we are arresting him.” ..... To which the older man calmly replied… “Well he’s my son, and this is a private residence, so no you’re not arresting him.” The cop just went… “Son of a bitch!” and Uncuffed the kid.

@SuperMouse Any age isn’t a bad thing, parents just need to teach kids to drink responsibly and we wouldn’t even need such a high drinking age. In Germany (and most of Europe for that matter) the drinking age is like 12.

In Texas, it’s legal for a parent to give their child an alcoholic drink at home, and it’s also legal to purchase an alcoholic drink at a restaurant and give it to the child.

I was always allowed to have a few sips of my mother’s wine or my father’s beer as a kid, and as a teen, my mother would let me have a small glass of wine occasionally. My father would also take me out to dinner and order a daquiri or a pina colada, then place the drink in front of me himself.

Many Christian denominations offer a sip (only a sip!) of wine during communion. It’s never been illegal in any state before. I’d like to see what the laws in various USA states say about this.

It is not illegal for a parent to give a child alcohol in their own home pursuant to the Liquor Licensing Act Section 30 here in Canada.

@tranquilsea Thank you, I was not aware parents/guardians could give minors alcohol in their own homes.

@PluckyDog you’re welcome.