Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering this is a moms & dads forums, I’m surprised at how many people go to bars multiple times a week.
I go to a bar maybe twice a year.
For socializing, we got to restaurants or someone hosts it at their house.
I drink 2-3 times a month, 1-2 drinks each time.

Yes the idea of having 20-30 drinks a week, as a PP reported, as a parent with minor children and in my case a job and hobbies, just sounds not possible. I might have approached that amount briefly in my 20s when I went out like 5 nights a week and my body could metabolize 4 drinks without causing a hangover the next day. Maybe a couple vacations pre-kids where I drank at that level, especially if at a resort where we were just relaxing most days. But as a 30 or 40 something with kids and a full time job? How? I also exercise daily and need 6 hours of sleep minimum to be functional -- there is simply not time to go drink at a bar with friends for hours in end more than a few times a year.

I have a friend who is extremely successful. Makes millions of dollars per year holding a high level job and is a person in the spotlight. She easily drinks at least a bottle of wine daily during the week and on the weekends, 3-4 bottles daily. You would have NO IDEA. She's an absolute superhuman machine. I can't get a proper night's sleep if I have 2-3 glasses, or have too much social activity. Meanwhile she's doing more in a day than an average person does in a year, working in the day and partying at night, all through the weekend-- for YEARS. Oh and she looks like a supermodel. I would not believe this were possible if I didn't know her. She has a constitution that would make Rasputin jealous. But you and me, pp, we are delicate hot house flowers, we are pinot grapes to her tungsten steel. I am in total awe. I also worry about her liver.

She is an alcoholic and likely has other addictive issues (her career likely is a way to feed addiction to risk, attention, or other unhealthy obsession). I don't envy her at all.

Also my choice to drink less is not some horrible sacrifice to me. I don't sit around wishing I could drink more. I enjoy drinking water. I enjoy getting a good night's sleep. I have ZERO interest in drinking a bottle of wine by myself and in fact that sounds depressing and sad.

Anonymous wrote:Why do you drink?

It helps me to relax and de-stress.

I had one beer on NYE. I can't remember the previous time to that- probably 3-4 weeks ago. I'll regularly have one drink with dinner at a restaurant, but that's about it. Anything more upsets my stomach, disrupts my sleep, and gives me a hangover the next day.

Getting old sucks.

1-2 a year

Most people are very normal and really don't drink that much. But roughly ten percent of the population has an alcohol use disorder, and they consume more than 60 percent of all the alcohol. Very lucrative for the alcohol industry.

Without the alcoholics, the beer, wine, and liquor producers would be out of business, except for some niche producers. And that's where the alcohol industry is going. Under 30s are not being socialized with drinking being the norm like GenX or Boomers did as they were coming up - for all sorts of reasons.

The alcohol industry will divide. Rotgut garbage from Barefoot wine to Popov vodka to high alcohol content beers on one side. And very good wines and whiskeys and so on for people that don't have a problem and drink on special occasions.

The entire middle space is gone in the US. Young people generally are not drinking. And GenX and older have their health issues and tend to avoid. Then add the effects of so many people being on the Ozempic type drugs, which tends to kill a desire to drink alcohol all together. And it results in a very tough time for the alcohol industry.

Which, good.

Why do you drink?

None. Zero.

This week I had:
- 1 beer last Saturday
- 1 glass of wine Sunday
- 1 glass of champagne and 1 beer on NYE
- 1 glass of champagne on the 1st (finished leftover NYE champagne)
- 1/2 a beer last night (other half went into chili otherwise I'd never have thought to have a beer)

I will probably have a glass of wine this evening but that's a new week, so thats 5.5 last week which is a TON for me.

I'd say I average 2 per week between the occasional glass of wine at home and I usually have a drink when I go out to dinner (almost never 2).

Anonymous wrote:most weeks 0. some weeks 2. rarely 6-8.

This is me. The 6-8 weeks being vacation where I usually have a drink most nights and maybe even 2. Other than that I like a margarita with Mexican food and otherwise rarely drink.

Anonymous wrote:Still, no one has addressed the issue of drinking a glass of wine with a meal. Do most of you (essentially) non-drinkers rarely have a glass of wine (or beer) with a meal - even when dining out with others? Do you just drink water?

There are many other cultures that see wine as part of the meal experience. They do not drink for drinking's sake but to enhance their dining.

I'm thinking this must be a one-off DCUM thing since very few adults I know only have a couple of drinks per year...

I'm a non-drinker. I do not drink any alcohol, so no I don't drink wine or beer with a meal. I do not drink any alcohol, so no I do not drink alcohol when dining out with others. Yes, I just drink water. The last time I had any alcohol was in 2021 - it was a sip of someone else's drink. That's how infrequently I drink alcohol.

It probably averages out to 2 glasses a week. Some weeks not at all, some weeks more.

I bought a large bottle of Crown Whiskey 3 days ago. I finished it last night.

5-7 per week, though I seem to be not finishing my cocktails on a regular basis, so I assume that number is going to decrease.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering this is a moms & dads forums, I’m surprised at how many people go to bars multiple times a week.
I go to a bar maybe twice a year.
For socializing, we got to restaurants or someone hosts it at their house.
I drink 2-3 times a month, 1-2 drinks each time.

Yes the idea of having 20-30 drinks a week, as a PP reported, as a parent with minor children and in my case a job and hobbies, just sounds not possible. I might have approached that amount briefly in my 20s when I went out like 5 nights a week and my body could metabolize 4 drinks without causing a hangover the next day. Maybe a couple vacations pre-kids where I drank at that level, especially if at a resort where we were just relaxing most days. But as a 30 or 40 something with kids and a full time job? How? I also exercise daily and need 6 hours of sleep minimum to be functional -- there is simply not time to go drink at a bar with friends for hours in end more than a few times a year.

I have a friend who is extremely successful. Makes millions of dollars per year holding a high level job and is a person in the spotlight. She easily drinks at least a bottle of wine daily during the week and on the weekends, 3-4 bottles daily. You would have NO IDEA. She's an absolute superhuman machine. I can't get a proper night's sleep if I have 2-3 glasses, or have too much social activity. Meanwhile she's doing more in a day than an average person does in a year, working in the day and partying at night, all through the weekend-- for YEARS. Oh and she looks like a supermodel. I would not believe this were possible if I didn't know her. She has a constitution that would make Rasputin jealous. But you and me, pp, we are delicate hot house flowers, we are pinot grapes to her tungsten steel. I am in total awe. I also worry about her liver.

None.