I lost one of my best friends to alcoholism about a month ago. My friend was 54 years old.
AA is good. It does help, but it's not an absolute cure. It does seem better than most (all?) of the other methods.
The very best way forward is simply to not take the first drink, ever. (This is what I am hypocritically telling my children. I drank to excess in my younger days, but I've been dry for about 20 years.) I hope they listen. Booze works for many people, but it's absolutely disastrous for some.
The best way to avoid dying in a car crash is to never get into a car, ever, but we're not advocating that, are we? Car crashes kill more people in the US than alcohol abuse.
I get that you're afraid that your kids will end up abusing alcohol, but I think you do them a disservice by painting the world so black-and-white. Avoiding alcohol can have many good effects, but it can also leave people out of many valuable social (and in some industries) business experiences, as much as it's a shame that that's still the case. Better to let them make their own decisions when the time comes without unduly influencing them with an absolute. (And many prohibitions that you lay on kids end up backfiring greatly with opposite effect, so there are no guarantees.)
Meanwhile, there are lots of more likely ways that they could screw up their life. Alcohol is just an easy bogeyman to shake a stick at.
Alcohol qua alcohol is a pretty terrible drug, toxic in reasonable doses, very addictive, affects judgement, and so on and so forth. I happen to think in a culture with a sane attitude towards drugs in general, alcohol wouldn't be a favorite.
Mormons, Muslims, straight-edgers, teetotalers, and alcoholics, all manage to socialize and conduct business just fine while never touching alcohol. Literally all you have to do is order soda water. Anyone who gives you crap for not drinking is going to turn out to have other bad habits, bet money on this.
GP is right: the absolute best way to avoid problems with alcohol is to not drink it. Considering GP was a problem drinker, and that has a genetic basis, you are being arrogant as hell telling him how to raise his children.
AA is good. It does help, but it's not an absolute cure. It does seem better than most (all?) of the other methods.
The very best way forward is simply to not take the first drink, ever. (This is what I am hypocritically telling my children. I drank to excess in my younger days, but I've been dry for about 20 years.) I hope they listen. Booze works for many people, but it's absolutely disastrous for some.