To miss the days when people were just 'thirsty'?!

[Babycham1979]

What's all this shit with, 'hydrating'? It's called drinking fucking water!

Whenever I hear someone claiming to be 'dehydrated', I want to reach for my revolver. No, dear, you're not dehydrated, you're just thirsty. It won't hurt you to wait twenty minutes for a drink.

Advanced capitalism, combined with nanny-statism seems to have fostered a nation of adult-babies who can't got five minutes without a snack, needing a piss, or a plastic bottle to suck on. It truly does my head in.

I can't remember the last time I sat through a film or a play without multiple audience members nipping out at least once during the show. Yes, I do appreciate that SOME people suffer incontinence, or might have needed a shot of insulin but, come on, not on this scale!

I remember being thirsty (old definition!) most of my junior schooldays. I'm pleased kids can have a drink now!

I was quite bright in those days. More than one tiny drink between 8 and 3.30 and maybe I could have taken over the world!

I take bottled water with me because my kids get thirsty. I never do when out and about as a rule, because I drink with meals and in the evening.

If you're dehydrated, your mouth is dry and when you pinch your skin lightly the blood doesn't plump up rapidly. I was shown what to look for when my DS was tiny and really unwell. Being thirsty does not equal dehydration, any more than being hungry equals malnutrition.

Having said that, I don't even notice, much less care, of other people want a snack or a drink. If I stopped to think about it I'd assume they were hungry, thirsty, or fancied a treat.

The latest advice I've read (it was re-posted on a science Blog) is that we don't need as much water as we think because water in food counts as well. Best advice is to check your pee (not first thing in the morning obvs) and if it's the cover of light straw you're hydrated enough and if it's dark you need more fluids. And if you're thirsty then drink some no matter the colour of your pee.

And tea has a very mild diuretic affect, but overall is fine for fluid intake. A generation of older women barely drank anything except tea, they did not die from dehydration.

It will still hydrate you, although I was under the impression it wasn't as good as other liquids. That link suggests there's no difference though, so not sure now.

Some of the responses here are actually describing the behaviours of psychological addiction. The image of someone clasping a plastic bottle of water in their hand 24/7 makes me think of those people with an e-fag permanently hanging out of the side of their mouth.

No amount of pseudo-science makes it anything other than that. Builders on-site all day manage without a constant supply of water, as do farmers, fishermen and absolutely everyone else in a tough physical job (particularly in hot countries). I remain unconvinced that desk-workers up and down this (temperate) country are more in need of 'rehydration' than them.

And yes, I run, too. I still manage to drink before and afterwards, without the need for bloody camel-pack and a plastic straw welded to my lips.

I know it's not related really but why does my cat rarely seem to drink? he has Felix in jelly sachets (as good as it looks?() 4 x a day but I rarely see him drink

I never drank anything but tea from the age of 16 to 31, when I first got pregnant and abruptly went off it. I hate tap water's taste - the chlorine. Never any hydration problems at all.

I drink 1l during the morning, 1l in the afternoon, 1l at training (swimming, boxing, military fitness) and then about 1l after that....I'm not constantly sipping my water bottle though (and it is the only thing I drink)

It's no more annoying than when my co-workers can't get through an hour without a coffee/tea....

Alcohol and the odd (every other week or so) glass of OJ excepted!

Surely individual thirsts differ though?

Ever since BFing (which I no longer do) I have greater thirst than I used to. And also when I run the evening, im conscious throughout the day to drink enough to keep me going.

I understand office workers going to make a coffee just to have a break. It gives you a few minutes downtime.

Baby but why does it bother you if some people are constantly drinking water? I wasn't aware people even noticed, I certainly don't

Say what you want but if I drink less my skin starts to dry out and I get headaches and feel unwell. I am baffled that me carrying a bottle could cause some people such angst.

I disagree about the farmers - my dad is one and he certainly wouldn't go the whole day without a drink!

A few months back I was admitted to hospital because I was dangerously dehydrated, as in keel over dead dangerous. Frightening just how quickly you can deteriorate without realising there is a problem. I didn't feel thirsty at all.

I don't absorb fluid as well other people, and I was expelling fluid (the nicest way I can think of putting it) faster than I could take in. So I do keep myself hydrated, with electrolytes, and not because I am following a trend - I'm just trying to stay alive.

Why don't you just feel smug and happy that you haven't been duped like the rest of us thirty mugs OP?!
Or is that headache making you crabby

YANBU about us being extremely pampered in the first world, and constant unhealthy snacking /sipping on fizzy drinks is clearly not ideal.

YABU about carrying water and thermal mugs though. I carry a bottle if I know I'll be out for a couple of hours or longer; yes i could survive without it but I'm much more comfortable when I can have a drink when I want. I really don't see the problem with wanting to be hydrated, or the hate for the word!

I carry a thermal mug occasionally when traveling etc - I like tea and I don't want to keep paying silly money for hot drinks, especially crap ones like you get on planes. I have the fancy non-spilly one as recommended by MN

I am judgy pants about people constantly drinking Diet Coke or similar though

Feline, it must be some deep-seated fear of my own mortality that's manifested in my resentment of others' displays of their own frailty. Or something.

But, seriously, I just get annoyed with adult-children who seem incontinent in every sense of the word. Not only does it often spoil my film and theatre-going, but it's a pain in the arse in the workplace, too; interrupted meetings; delayed completion; additional distraction etc.

I'm probably being too English in expecting people to maintain a stiff upper-lip, but I can't help but feel many of society's modern ills (obesity, the need for instant gratification, miniscule attention-spans, sleb-worship) are the direct result of such a lack of moral-fibre.

As others have intimated, we built the world's largest empire and won two world wars on nothing but weak tea and roll-ups. No wonder modern Britain is in terminal decline.

Baby I'm puzzled at how the British empire, built on colonialism and oppression is being portrayed as a good thing and has been mentioned in a conversation about hydration...

There is nothing "childish" about drinking water. How does it ruin your film or meeting? Unless they are drinking noisily I can't see a problem. And how is it a distraction?! I'm just not seeing it

Your post can pretty much be summed up with "I think my own personal beliefs should come before others comfort levels" which is pretty silly

I think you've got a point to an extent, OP, but I need to wee a lot and there's not really anything I can do about it if I went to see a film I'd definitely have to go before, during and after.

I bet you'd be more offended if I sat and pissed myself than got up for the loo halfway through...

Feline, that was tongue-in-cheek! Jesus!

Baby well when you're getting that irate about people drinking water, I thought it safer to assume you were serious ;)

Also, not going to the loo often/not drinking often doesn't mean you have stronger moral fibre. What a load of rubbish.

I'm breastfeeding at the minute and thirstier then I've ever been in my life. I always carry a bottle of water (tap!) if I'm out and about, otherwise I get headachey and groggy. I don't think it makes me any kind of weakling. I think I'd be a fucking idiot not to.

Avocado, if you sat opposite me in a meeting, pissed yourself without batting an eyelid and carried on as if nothing had happened, you'd have my utmost respect!

Babycham Ironic that proper water intake can help fight obesity and short attention spans, no?

You're also refering back to a time when life expectancy was approx 'until your shit diet of tea and fags kills you'.