Is it sinful for Catholics to drink alcohol, or should they learn how to use it responsibly?
(Yes, I know the answer, but please bear with me...)
If so, when should they learn? When they're on their own, among their less-than-mature friends, or should their parents guide them in this area as well?
Here is what I'm referring to --
You have two kinds of discipline -- EXTERNAL and INTERNAL. External discipline is being FORCED to do the right thing because it's physically impossible to do the wrong thing. Example: You live at home, mom & dad are there, there's no alcoholic beverages in the house.
INTERNAL discipline is true self-discipline, where a person chooses to not drink too much (or not at all) even though he is over 21, has money, lives on his own, and decides to attend a party hosted by one of his friends where alcohol will be present.
Raising children is all about teaching them to make the right choices, and guiding them -- forming their free will to make the right decisions. Helping them learn from their successes AND mistakes, so that one day they will make the right decisions on their own.
This is a very profound matter in the world of discipline and child-raising. If everyone understood this (what I wrote above), you wouldn't have NEARLY as many sheltered children with strict parents go absolutely CRAZY when they get to college or otherwise leave home. All their life, discipline was too forced an external -- little or none of it was internalized. So massive rebellion ensues at the first opportunity.