Sharon, Thijs’s mother, agrees that the shack is known as the place where young people start drinking, but emphasizes that there is always parental supervision. “In the beginning I was worried. I wondered if we didn’t give them a license,” she says. “But when they went to rooms, I had no view of that. When they were younger, I kept an eye on them more often and I also intervened.”
Education plays an important role in this. The environment in which you grow up has a major influence on your behavior, Van Iperen explains the Trimbos Institute. “Seeing drinks drinks. If everyone drinks around you, it is more likely that you will start as a young person.”
According to the Trimbos Institute, it is a common argument: ‘Better at home or in the shack than in the pub or discotheque’. Van Iperen points out that parents in the countryside are often willing to approve the drink or even give their children alcohol. “As long as drinking when normal is considered, you stay in a vicious circle.”
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