Just saying no to ... Coke? What?

I was driving my 8-year-old son to his Little League practice yesterday, and I passed a bottle of Coke back to him.

That's Coke with a capital C, just in case ya missed it.

So, you'd think that'd be a simple, sweet gesture, right?

Not in Jonathan's world. His response made me feel like the ultimate "Bad Dad."

"No thanks!" he shouted. "I don't need that!"

I went from feeling like Mean Joe Greene from those 70s commercials, tossing his jersey to the little Mikey cereal kid, saying, "Thanks, Mean Joe!" to the guy who pushed steroids on Mark McGuire.

Say it ain't so!

Now, I'm not saying that a bottle of the Real Thing is like drinking a bottle of Wild Thing. But it's an interesting metaphor for life, isn't it? I mean, how many of us would turn down a bottle filled with liquid sugar, salt and caffeine, especially when we've got to do some heavy lifting at 6 p.m. in the evening?

I look at my kid universe and, so far, I've been pretty damn lucky. All my kids, as well as my nieces and nephews, have displayed the kind of resolve and self-confidence that, hopefully, won't lead them down the road of Britney Spears.

These aren't kids who need phony platitudes like "Just say No" to steer them away from heroin. So far, at least, they seem to know that they "don't need that." They make their own decisions and care about the consequences.

Of course, it's way too early to tell. They range in age from 15 to 3, and I've seen and known kids turn into the homeless and hopeless overnight.

I've seen kids who started drinking after a teenage life of sobriety - something that I certainly couldn't attest to. Just months later, I'd see them sticking a needle into the fat part of their arm, and watch their eyes roll back.

I know what the statistics say, too. More than a quarter of youth aged 12-20 drank alcohol in the past month, according to a survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Alcohol is the most widely used so-called "substance of abuse" among America’s youth. Alcohol contributes to the three leading causes of death among 12-20-year-olds (unintentional injury, homicide and suicide).

There have been lots of arguments that alcohol is OK because it's the legalized drug of choice, even though marijuana has been known to aid in the care of cancer patients. People scoff at the connections between drinking and harder drugs.

But research also shows that those who start drinking before age 15 are six times more likely to have alcohol problems, and potentially more serious substance abuse issues, as adults than those who start drinking at age 21 or older.

I'm not temperate; neither am I a member of the clean police that's calling for a second prohibition. Yes, I despise champagne and dislike most wines. I'm also known to drink half of a beer and leave the rest for the bus boy or bartender to clean up.

It's just that, at 43, the whole idea of sucking down half a case of beer at a bbq just ain't so fun. I don't know if that makes me good or bad, better or indifferent.

If anything, I think it's part of my stubborn streak that I see in my kids, the same pickiness that compels me to order only steamed Chinese Food and to prefer tea over coffee. That stubbornness fueled my survival when I was younger, when the temptation to carry it too far was always great.

That stubbornness stopped a succession of substance abuse that was rooted in every generation of my family dating back to the Civil War.

I'm not "just saying no." To each his own, right? I just "don't need that."