While I appreciate most of your reasons, I believe that a household prohibition on alcohol may backfire by exoticizing it to your son. I grew up in a household where there sometimes beer in the fridge, sometimes not. Mom kept Kahlua in the house for her awesome fudge cakes and there was usually some other liquors around. Since it was never made a big deal on eway or another, it was never an issue in my household.
Also, watching the news was usually a family/dinner affair and we would discuss things that came on tv. There was usually a story every week about drinking involved with some stories. I feel this did more to keep me from glorifying alcohol than anything else. If it hadn't been around and a topic of conversation, no telling how I would have wound up.
All of which closely echo my personal views in the past. I always drank responsibly around my nephew as did everyone else in my household. However, the night my nephew stole liquor on Halloween, his friends did as well with the disastrous result that one kid got badly scarred by mishandled fireworks and 1 got a broken nose in an ensuing fight. It was a real mess and I really don't want to be one of the contributing sources to a mess like that again.
I think what you describe is the case for most kids, but for some like my nephew the temptation is too strong. Now that he's a drinking age adult, he's had to to eliminate alcohol almost entirely from his life; he luckily has a live in girl friend that supports that. As well my brother was killed years ago on a motorcycle while DUTI. I've never really had problems with addictions other than cigarettes and for that I was able to successfully quit cold turkey. I think you have to take it on a family -by- family basis and for me the risk that my son might eventually have a disposition to alcohol addiction is very real. I'm not so naive as to think I still wouldn't have my work cut out for me if he does, but at least by not having it in the home I can eliminate that as possibly ever being a source of the problem.
