Middle class parents drinking heavily - new report published

Middle class parents drinking heavily - new report published

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anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19870190

Well stop the press... Who would ever imagine people drinking alcohol daily?

I spent my childhood in the excess years of the 80's and 90's growing up surrounded by friends of my parents drinking (a few) bottles of wine daily. In fact, as a small child, my grandmother was absolutely horrified on one occasion, when one of my mums friends called round and having observed she was a big gin and tonic drinker, I managed to retrieve a bottle of Gordon's from the kitchen and drag it though the house to where they were sat chatting...

I just assumed from an early age that adults were pissed all the time to be honest.

Can't say it's done me any harm... wobble

Digga

40,207 posts

282 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
My first flash of the chain of mortality was in a hotel in Majorca when I was about 11.

Not sure what was going on, but we were due to meet in the bar late morning and I'd been up to the room to change. Digga sr came up to find where I was and clearly whilst I'd been in the pool he'd been in the bar already. As the elevator arrived at the ground floor, dad led the way, clacking his keys like castanets, clicking the soles of his loafers on the (very well polished and slippery) marble floor before proceeding to fall flat on his back.

I knew well before them my parents drank, but it was at that very moment that I really understood that one day I would have to look after this bloke.

In retrospect (there have been a few further instances where the child becomes the guardian) I realise this is actually an iterative process.

mattnunn

14,041 posts

160 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
I don't drink during the week anymore and try to limit myself at weekends. When you've got young kids all days are long hard days, and when it gets to past 7 and they're all in bed it seems so natural to pour a large glass of wine and veg in front of the telly, I can see how it very quickly becomes a 7 day a week habit of drinking half a bottle a night, it's much harder not to do it.

thinfourth2

32,414 posts

203 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
First they came for the smokers

alfaman

6,416 posts

233 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
mattnunn said:
it seems so natural to pour a large glass of wine and veg in front of the telly, I can see how it very quickly becomes a 7 day a week habit of drinking half a bottle a night, it's much harder not to do it.
^^^^ this

..got into the bad habit living in the UK of having a glass of wine most nights ...can get quite addictive [associate getting in from work late with pouring a glass or 2 of wine with dinner]

..I now rarely drink mid week and feel a lot better for it [but alcohol IS rather pricy in SG]

KrazyIvan

4,341 posts

174 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
thinfourth2 said:
First they came for the smokers
When then come for the wkers i'll be worried hehe

By the age of 16 I realised that my mum was an alcoholic and my Dad was fast following her (until he gave up drinking when I was in my early 20's), I wont say it did not do me any harm, but I have never gone out to get drunk (I have been on more then one occasion) and tend to get a bit pissy with my wife when she gets drunk (rare these days). And as I get older I have started to go with quality over quantity. I'd rather drink one glass of a good red then 3 (for £10) bottles. Same goes for beer and whiskey.

Digga

40,207 posts

282 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
KrazyIvan said:
thinfourth2 said:
First they came for the smokers
When then come for the wkers i'll be worried hehe
And the loafers. (On PH during office hours.) biglaugh

spikeyhead

17,225 posts

196 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
Digga said:
KrazyIvan said:
thinfourth2 said:
First they came for the smokers
When then come for the wkers i'll be worried hehe
And the loafers. (On PH during office hours.) biglaugh
I think they came for the fox hunters first.

Mr E

21,583 posts

258 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
"suggested about a third of mothers and fathers drink more than their recommended units a week."

Everybody I know drinks more than their recommended units a week. And also remember that the recommended units are simply made up, with no medical reason for them.


prand

5,910 posts

195 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
mattnunn said:
I don't drink during the week anymore and try to limit myself at weekends. When you've got young kids all days are long hard days, and when it gets to past 7 and they're all in bed it seems so natural to pour a large glass of wine and veg in front of the telly, I can see how it very quickly becomes a 7 day a week habit of drinking half a bottle a night, it's much harder not to do it.
This is me & Mrs P right now. I'm not too worried as it's a load less than we used to drink pre-kids!

Digga

40,207 posts

282 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
spikeyhead said:
I think they came for the fox hunters first.
I reckon that was a purely pragmatic move; they're easier to find than the loafers and wkers.

g3org3y

20,606 posts

190 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
KrazyIvan said:
thinfourth2 said:
First they came for the smokers
When then come for the wkers i'll be worried hehe
Genuine LOL at this! biggrin

mattnunn

14,041 posts

160 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
Digga said:
spikeyhead said:
I think they came for the fox hunters first.
I reckon that was a purely pragmatic move; they're easier to find than the loafers and wkers.
Especially when they're pissed

ewenm

28,506 posts

244 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
thinfourth2 said:
First they came for the smokers
As far as I know you can still smoke as much as you want at home, and as much as you want elsewhere too as long as it's unenclosed and not forcing anyone else to enjoy the smoke.

Yep, "they" really did a number on smokers...

As for parents drinking a lot - as Mattnunn says, it's an easy habit to drop into when you've had another long day with the kids and just want to chill out/veg out in the evening. That said, it can't go too far as the sprogs will be up again early the following morning and hangovers really don't help with getting them up hehe

Edited by ewenm on Monday 8th October 15:43

joewilliams

2,004 posts

200 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
ewenm said:
As for parents drinking a lot - as Mattnunn says, it's an easy habit to drop into when you've had another long day with the kids and just want to chill out/veg out in the evening. That said, it can't go too far as the sprogs will be up again early the following morning and hangovers really don't help with getting them up hehe
Very true. I'm hardly ever get drunk any more, just have a nice bottled ale after dinner. Resisting the call of the other bottles is the tricky bit smile

mattnunn

14,041 posts

160 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
ewenm said:
As far as I know you can still smoke as much as you want at home, and as much as you want elsewhere too as long as it's unenclosed and not forcing anyone else to enjoy the smoke.

Yep, "they" really did a number on smokers...

As for parents drinking a lot - as Mattnunn says, it's an easy habit to drop into when you've had another long day with the kids and just want to chill out/veg out in the evening. That said, it can't go too far as the sprogs will be up again early the following morning and hangovers really don't help with getting them up hehe

Edited by ewenm on Monday 8th October 15:43
Indeed, I think that's the problem, through my 20s I was probably what you'd call a binge drinker, i.e drink for an occasion for the reasons of getting drunk, usually when out very rarely around the house/flat.

As soon as you have kids the drinking becomes more like self medication, you never drink enough to really have a hang over, just enough to dull the days events and allow your brain to accept Midsomer Murders with out violent reaction, I think it's much more habit forming and insidious.

croyde

22,709 posts

229 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
mattnunn said:
Indeed, I think that's the problem, through my 20s I was probably what you'd call a binge drinker, i.e drink for an occasion for the reasons of getting drunk, usually when out very rarely around the house/flat.

As soon as you have kids the drinking becomes more like self medication, you never drink enough to really have a hang over, just enough to dull the days events and allow your brain to accept Midsomer Murders with out violent reaction, I think it's much more habit forming and insidious.
I completely agree with that and when I look after the kids, I have noticed that that first beer or wine is getting earlier and earlier. In fact the only time I tend to avoid drink now is when I'm working or the day before an early start. I only go out about once a week, if that these days so I think that I drink more now than when I used be out most nights of the week.

I still try to have a night off the booze once a week unlike my ex-wife who is pretty drunk by 7pm whether she's at work or with the kids.

Insidious is the word.

fido

16,752 posts

254 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
g3org3y said:
KrazyIvan said:
thinfourth2 said:
First they came for the smokers
When then come for the wkers i'll be worried hehe
Genuine LOL at this! biggrin
I'll leave the country if that happens. laugh

Ozzie Osmond

21,189 posts

245 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
mattnunn said:
I can see how it very quickly becomes a 7 day a week habit of drinking half a bottle a night, it's much harder not to do it.
Bottle = 9 units

Half bottle = 4.5 units

4.5 x 7 = 31.5 units a week, evenly spread and quite likely with food. Barely over the 28.

Derek Smith

45,514 posts

247 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
I've got a problem with my stomach lining. If it gets damaged I suffer from a vitamin B12 deficiency. When I was in my teens I drank a little, no more than a couple or three pints of a Fri and Sat yet I would have a hangover that lasted for days. I eventually started throwing up blood and kept going yellow. April 1979 was my last drink: half a pint of Guinness which nearly put me in hospital.

Since then I've been tea-total. It was incredibly easy to do. I didn't miss it after a few months. However, I did a fair bit of research on the effects of alcohol, just to give me supp9ort, and I was stunned with just how dangerous it is. I was talking to a doctor who did a lot with treatment of alcoholism and he was of the opinion that it was more addictive, ie more difficult to give up due to physical and emotional dependancy, than any opiate.

What alcohol can do to the unborn child is horrific.

I had two lumps in my throat and went in for a biopsy. I spoke with the doctor who was going to check the lump and if carcinogenic would have there and then done a trachyoptomy. When I told him I neither drunk nor smoked he said that he had not done a trachy on any person who neither drank nor smoked in n years of doing such ops three days a week. The key was alcohol. He too was tea-total but not for direct medical reasons.

Test show that even in very limited amounts, one unit for most, alcohol affects the way one can do physical and mental acts. Driving is the most obvious sufferer, but there's machines, knitting (something to do with the automated actions), swimming, and that sort of thing.

Alcohol is very dangerous stuff. If you drink regularly, i.e. daily, then you are putting yourself at considerable risk. O course, spoken by someone who can't drink, but it is true.