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.

I came here to say this.

Middle class mums taking newborn babies to wine tasting sessions seems to be a popular thing now.

I love that MN is advertising gin on this thread - point proven?

I honestly don't know how they get their false eyelashes on in the morning.

Op you post this on a mainly middle class website, the reaction is as expected. A lot of ooh not us, don't talk about your employers when they'd normally comment on a workplace post. People have even given the research (usually a must on mn) but it's not being believed

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.

At a population level maybe. But lots of people within that average don't drink at all, or drink rarely. There is definitely a concentration of people who drink too much and a lot of them are middle class and in denial. I think it's true that working class people are judged more harshly.

Classic that this ad appeared halfway down the page….

Not according to the stats we don’t … UK doesn’t feature in any of the lists I’ve seen

Top 10 Countries with the Highest Rates of Alcohol Use Disorder/Alcoholism (both genders):
Hungary 21.2%
Russia 20.9%
Belarus 18.8%
Latvia 15.5%
United States 13.9%
South Korea 13.9%
Slovenia 13.9%
Poland 12.8%
Slovakia 12.2%
Estonia 12.2%

It's interesting because I definitely feel as though there is a generational divide. People I know in their 20s to early 30s tend to drink significantly less than those in their 40s and 50s. Amongst the latter age group I see people drinking most nights, with a decent proportion at least having half a bottle of wine a night. Amongst the younger group, I definitely still see problematic drinking (for example binge drinking) but I think they tend to drink less regularly and in total units drink less.

I'd be interested to see if my anecdata is backed up by real data though!

There are loads of people who can live a very productive and successful life while knocking back a bottle of wine or more every night. Functional alcoholism is more obvious when you have cleaners, nannies, babysitters and so on coming in and out of the home. It’s not a class thing- it’s a behind closed doors thing!

Who's bashed the working class?! Why are people taking this so nastily?
I have working class family and we love spending time at the working man's club.
Jerez's... god regret and forbid I said anything now.

I cannot give you real data, but I agree with your anecdote, seems very true to me

With respect that data is the best part of a decade old now. Out of genuine curiosity do you have anything more up to date? I’d be particularly interested to see similar data since COVID.

This is true of myself and my social circle too. We’ve really cut back alcohol in our 30s and prioritise exercise and health above all else.

Also, drinking too much is bad for your skin and leads to premature ageing.

It's a British thing.

I was speaking to a nurse when my mum was in hospital recently. He told me that they are seeing increasingly large numbers of women with severe alcohol issues and liver damage. He said they'd really noticed it since covid and thinks, as a PP said, it's started in lockdown. He said a lot of them were drinking a bottle a night then it went up to two and that of them their husbands were oblivious to the amount they drank

I used to live abroad and it's definitely not just a British thing. The Scandinavian countries drank far more- Norwegians in particular.