To think the middle classes drink heavily?

[nannysecrets]

I've been a private nanny for over two decades for some highly educated, middle/upper class families. It's an observation of mine that a lot of them drink quite heavily. I'm talking about every night, a few bottles of wine and usually some G&T's between the parents.
I know this as I take in their grocery shopping so I see the contents. Often, when they get home from work a bottle is opened straight away and I'm offered a tipple. Sometimes I accept so I'm not bashing anyone!
I know some live in nannies who tell me the parents they work for are getting sloshed each night. I've had children tell me, 'mummy was throwing up in the night' and the mum will casually say to me 'oh you know sometimes it's better to just get it out'!
As I said, not a bashing thread. More of an observation. I believe there are quite a few middle class lushes who seem to go unnoticed as they work in high powered jobs as opposed to the average unemployed alcoholic who is more obvious due to their lifestyle.
No offence to anyone. Just an observation I thought about recently.

Brilliant! Thank you 🤣

From this and the NT membership thread I'm now wondering if I've left my working class, council estate upbringing behind!

I grew up with a grandad who went to the pub almost every night (very working class and worked down the mines) and an uncle who was a functioning alcoholic who partially lived of cheap cider. I can't say I've ever considered excessive drinking as a class indicator.

Also would be interesting to know how many middle class drinkers are know the social services compared to lower class drinkers. The risks to the children are probably the same.

Surely all the drinkers will be hammered by now, after all its 17.15 on a Friday night, so there won't be any coherent arguments against it.

This place seems to hate drinkers almost as much as it hates men and video gamers, so lets run this one up the flagpole and see who salutes it.

I blame the vikings

I'm surprised people don't know/realize that the UK has one of the absolute worst drinking cultures in the world. We have a huge culture of "having a glass of wine with dinner" - which turns into sharing a bottle - or two, actually more so than our Western European counterparts. Other countries do drink, yes, other countries do have drinking with food and alcoholics etc, but the UK gets 1st place for encouraging and drinking "a glass of vino" or "a cheeky one" at every opportunity until it's routine

It's why we have such high rates of drinking while pregnant (compared to countries like France, which despite what's said on mumsnet, actually usually abstain during pregnancy).

Foetal alcohol syndrome is now more prevalent amongst the middle classes than it is the working class. I learnt this while attending a Child Protection course.

It is a thing and under recognised this SAR was published recently exploring the themes
https://www.eastsussexsab.org.uk/documents/sar-hannah-overview-report/

They say that Gen Z are breaking this habit and will be the generation with the least drinkers.

If there are any class issues associated with drinking too much, it will become more noticeable if less people overall are drinking.

Quite a lot of folk drink heavily. I don't think it's any particular class. Even on MN folk try and justify excessive amounts of alcohol consumption.

I'm afraid this is very true. Sucessful, middle-class drinking is the norm. We have many friends who will have a couple of G&Ts as soon as they come home, and a bottle of wine each- followed by a whisky or too later. Never ever drunk, and with very high tolerance (and can afford it). As they all do it, they actually think it is 'normal' and not a health issue, until too late.

I think it’s more an upper class/ upper middle class thing. Or a those on high incomes thing!

A lot of middle class people couldn’t afford that level of drinking!

I have just been in hospital and next to me was a lady in her 80s with dementia. She was screaming, throwing her food, fixating on my daughter and trying to escape. She had to have 1-1 care. After 3 days I heard her date of birth (she was only 60) and an exasperated doctor telling her she’s killing herself if she keeps drinking. Judging by her rants, accent and belongings she was once well-to-do. No visitors though.

I’m mc and neither DH or I drink much at all. Like I probably average 2 drinks per month.

However we have noticed a lot of the parents at DC private school like to drink A LOT!

But we don't know who her employers are so why does it matter?

My dad and his wife drink heavily its very worrying to me, min 2 bottles wine per day and easily other drinks too.

I no longer drink and im glad for it

It's all the classes. Unfortunately my sister has end stage liver failure after years of drinking wine every evening. As a woman, you are particularly at risk once you hit the perimenopause as your liver doesn't process alcohol as well as it once did.
I do, however, think drinking is a bit of a generational thing and that the younger generation seems to be a bit more health conscious.

Have you read the rest of the thread, plenty of studies show what op is talking about. It's important to discuss this it's not 'very odd'

Not a middle class thing, it's a British thing. We have a major problem with alcohol in this country and we choose to ignore reality.

It's not even the debate it is like gun ownership is in the US. We don't even get to that stage of recognising it as a problem.

When you have healthy lifestyle advice in magazines and on the news where the default is, "try to have a night off not drinking during the week" because that's the norm, to drink every day.

Posts on mumsnet thinking it's normal to have some drinks in the daytime on your own at home after dropping the kids at school/nursery.

Going to an afternoon musical matinee and seeing the mums around you with glasses of wine to cope.

It's not even always the quantity, it's the attitude toward it that our mainland European friends and US people don't have.

When we went to Vegas we couldn't even buy a slushie on the street without alcohol (we asked). Yet no one was drunk or fighting like they would be if street drinking was properly allowed here.

Recycling day is always funny around here. You can tell who doesnt want people to know how much they drink as it takes them AGES to put their recycling out as the place each bottle in the bin individually. Then there are people like me who just chuck it all in and makes it sound like a pub at closing time!

I work in a convenience store and there is a definite difference. Most of our customers are regulars. Working class men buy multi packs of lager, middle class men it tends to be a couple of bottles of craft beer or a bottle of red, working class women rarely buy alcohol and if they do it tends to be prosecco, middle class women white or rose wine and usually at least 2 bottles. The working class men and middle class women seem to buy the most alcohol, you see the same faces every night.

Ha ha snap. My dad went to the pub every single day (lunchtime during the week) all afternoon at the weekend whilst working in a skilled trade. My mum thought she was superior to her sister as she and my dad didn’t go to the pub all day on a weekend just at night on a Saturday but she’d have 1/4 or a half bottle of Bells and then say wildly inappropriate things to me. I also remember being taken to visit one of my dad’s friends who was dying of cirrhosis of the liver through booze. All normal!

I well believe it.

People with nannies can get sloshed without having to worry about sorting out their kids.
OP’s sample is of those people.

I honestly don't hate drinkers at all. I said in my op that I sometimes take said offered drink.
I'll be drinking this weekend too at my sister's birthday. It's just a discussion.

Not true. In the table of alcohol consumption per capita by country, the UK comes in at 24, below a long list of other countries including France, Germany, Switzerland and a number of other European countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption_per_capita#Comprehensive_list_with_data_from_2016