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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Is the tide finally turning on the British drinking culture?

104 replies

Moonpig82 · 15/02/2024 09:06

I’ve not drank in 6 months and I don’t miss it!

Article from the BBC today about Pryzm nightclubs but one of the factors surrounding their closure is how young people are spending their money and time differently, alongside the lack of interest in drinking.

When I was a student it was all about the £1 shots, VodBull, sessions before we went out! 🤢

Our poor livers! Really hope drinking is really not a thing at all when my DC are older.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68295306

Revellers

Pryzm nightclub boss blames lack of students for closures

Peter Marks, who runs the UK's biggest club chain, says students are going out later and spending less.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68295306

OP posts:
TiaSeeya · 15/02/2024 16:27

It’s changed in that it’s cool not to drink now, there isn’t the stigma to teetotalism that there used to be, teens and YAs are more accepting of others choices.

My DS at uni is often out on the lash - SU not so much as “that’s for first years who don’t know what they are doing” lol - he’s city centre in a big city so has lots of choice of bars, pubs and clubs plus live music venues. Yes to pres - for club nights especially which don’t get going til very late they drink at home first. One of my DS s good friends doesn’t drink but goes out with them all and has a laugh, it’s not a big deal.

The other thing that’s changed is the strictness around selling alcohol to minors. I used to get served alcohol in the pub from about age 15-16. DD is 18 this summer and hasn’t been to a pub with friends at all - no point as without fake ID she’d not be served. We visited some uni towns with her earlier in the year and wanted to pop into a pub for a pre dinner drink and get her a soft drink - nope. Bouncers on the door wouldn’t even let us in!

TiaSeeya · 15/02/2024 16:28

Oh and anyone that thinks drinking culture isn’t a thing any more Google Otley Run!

MrsSkylerWhite · 15/02/2024 16:30

Tiggermom · Today 09:13
**
Yes but isn’t drugs/ vapes replacing it in young people.”

Not in ours. (29 and 21, both very sensible).

DinaofCloud9 · 15/02/2024 16:31

Drugs are cheaper now. Cocaine use is rife.

captaincalamari12 · 15/02/2024 16:33

COL is a big thing. I used to be able to go out with £20 and have a kebab on the way home with change. This wasn't even that long ago. Now it's £8-£10 a drink. How do you afford to do that when a cocktail is as much as an hour on minimum wage?

AgnesX · 15/02/2024 16:33

There's still enough bad behaviour that some of my younger team don't want to go for team drinks as they're scared of bad behaviour and language after people have a few drinks (they're entitled to their opinion although in the work context it's not going to happen).

That said, the Scottish Govt are starting to treat alcohol like tobacco and the cost us going up which is probably influencing sales.

RB68 · 15/02/2024 16:39

They just cant afford it to be honest with what clubs charge. DD is 1st yr at Uni and she goes out to the Uni bar once a week and will have one or two, if they are clubbing they pre at someones place and go out 10 or 11 ish - to be fair its exactly what 35 yrs ago we did. I do see more of a sensible attitude after a couple of months of daftness and freedom its balancing out. I bloody hate the get pissed all weekend every weekend, bottomless brunches, endless cocktails and bottles of spirits stuff then fall over curbs in the shortest dress ever with boobs hanging out or beating the shit out of a mate cos I am an angry or jealous drunk.

I have no idea why we find it acceptable

User135644 · 15/02/2024 16:50

TwattingDog · 15/02/2024 16:26

I'm astonished that people truly believe clean living, healthy lifestyles etc have taken over.

Drug use has gone through the roof. Drugs violence has gone through the roof. Gangs, knives, debts, deaths, stabbings, children being coerced and encouraged to deal and to use drugs, children being sexually abused, children being trafficked around the country as drugs mules - I've never seen it as bad as it is now. School dropout rates are huge with massive links to vulnerbale kids, county lines and drugs.

It's absolutely terrifying and the press don't seem to give a fuck.

MDMA use has had a huge resurgence recently, but it's the synthetic opiods that have everyone worried - nitazenes, fentanyl derivatives, so-called SCRAs which people think are cannabis alternatives but which are much more dangerous than a joint will ever be, unknown substances that people buy thinking it's one thing when it's a dangerous thing chemical compound...

Cocaine use is so common that the military are struggling to retain people because they are getting coked up on a weekend with their mates as it's cheaper than it is to have a few pints.

The kids are not alright.

Legalise and tax drugs and make alcohol illegal. Organised crime would still make a killing with alcohol (which is how it all started for the Al Capones 100 years ago) but all these weird drugs that fuck your mental health would go the way of tobacco.

In all seriousness, prohibition of both has been an utter disaster.

Pllystyrene · 15/02/2024 17:24

My teenager tried drinking, got drunk and couldn't understand why people did it!. He will occasionally have a cider with meal out but as far as I'm aware hasn't been drunk since. The same with smoking, tried vaping realised it was really bad for you and stopped. They are very much a different generation but to be honest I barely drink these days as well. I think times are just changing, people are realising just how bad for you these things are 🤷‍♀️

SOxon · 16/02/2024 08:06

TiaSeeya · 15/02/2024 16:28

Oh and anyone that thinks drinking culture isn’t a thing any more Google Otley Run!

This is a sight to behold, Carnival, outlandish costumes, one Saturday afternoon,
all traffic held up whilst cowboys and Indians, clowns, superheroes, animals,
fighter pilots, swarmed across the road, from Headingley Stadium, an amazing happy sight.
DS was at Leeds, assured us the drinking is secondary.
For quieter more nervous visitors, the newish, enormous Wetherspoons in Headingley will not allow Otley Run participants through the door.

menopausalmare · 16/02/2024 08:19

Most drinking goes on at home. Nightclub closures won't affect this.

SOxon · 16/02/2024 08:40

Dentist yesterday, after quoting for a new crown, left me reeling!
assured me the high cost of dentistry was one reason people are
generally cutting down on alcohol drinks and mixers, fruit juices,
more aware of hidden sugars.
The Surgery have two tough talking (and very expensive Hygienists)
who now advise on diet, sugar is bad, alcohol converts to sugar etc.
Of course a patient would have to be receptive to this information,
make the connection, review their evening drinking.

This is a town of many hostelries. Apart from one particular old pub
with an outside drinking area for regular stalwarts, the pubs are noticeably
quiet, although this is not a Student town so no drunkenness here.

In our own socially aware circles, half do not drink now, ‘liver aware’
admonished by gp, spouse, AC, cost, mostly health reasons, including
necessary weight loss, empty calories.

Deliberately getting legless during Freshers Week used to be a Rites of Passage.
Reading some of your posts of the preponderence of casual drug use makes me
relieved mine are through that minefield.

For all the time we lived in small town France, we never once saw or heard
a drunken Frenchman/woman, only ever English in various forms of inebriation.

Another random thought - before Christmas, shopping online, surprised
at the low alcohol prices, Baileys 10£ a litre, now 22£ example, at a time
when young teens may be allowed alcohol as a ‘treat’ setting them on a
path. Curiosity rewarded.
My parents never drank, ostensibly, a sherry at Christmas perhaps, now
it’s part of life, like rotten teeth.

Onelifeonly · 16/02/2024 08:57

Weed is rampant where we live. Vodka and shots popular among the late teen crowd - they flock to the local 'spoons' on a Friday. And vaping everywhere. My days of cider / lager with spirits only on a special night out seem rather tame.

I do agree though that a lot of socialising happens at home on snap chat and game sites. My children spend hours doing this and it's been their main way of meeting people outside school / college/ work.

Foxblue · 16/02/2024 09:11

Interesting answers on this thread, some of which I would agree with.
To put another point forward - and this certainly isn't everyone (so please dont come at me with accusations of ageism, it isnt everyone in this age bracket, its behaviour i have personally only observed coming from people in this age bracket)
But i have personally found that the drinking culture in the 50+ bracket is so strong that it
A. Covers up the fact that a lot of people are functioning alcoholics. Do you absolutely have to drink at every social occasion, or 5 times a week?
B. Means that they think people not drinking is 'weird' 'oh go on, just have one, why not? What's your issue? We're here to have fun'
Nothing less enticing than someone pressuring you to drink!
C. Means their kids have grown up sober in their childhood/teens, watching the above behaviour and possibly experiencing some uncomfortable behaviour, and have thought 'hmm yeah, it's not THAT cool'

But honestly, far far far above all the points on this thread: it's cost. It's overwhelmingly cost. I used to take £20 out and still just about have change for chips on the way home - and I'm early 30s, so not that old. A pint is well over £5 now in most areas. It's so expensive to drink out!!

Willyoujustbequiet · 16/02/2024 09:12

No it's not. Just not in pubs anymore.

Everybody I know has a bar in their garden now. People are drinking as much, but it's at home.

DinaofCloud9 · 16/02/2024 17:39

For all the time we lived in small town France, we never once saw or heard
a drunken Frenchman/woman, only ever English in various forms of inebriation

There's plenty of alcoholism in France. I find it hard to believe you never saw a drunk French person.

Clarabell77 · 16/02/2024 17:42

Can only go by the young people in my family and yes, they are very far removed from the drinking culture that was the norm
for me. My daughter thinks nightclubs sound awful. I’m delighted 😂

ScareBrow · 16/02/2024 17:53

My kids are at university and the drinking culture seems the same as it was in my day 🤷🏼‍♀️

ScareBrow · 16/02/2024 17:55

Goatymum · 15/02/2024 12:55

If you think students don’t drink or smoke weed you’re much mistaken! They wouldn’t go to Pryzm though out of choice. It’s a meat market.

Edited

Yep my kids are drinking and clubbing same as in my day. The one in a cheaper town goes out more though.

makeupme · 16/02/2024 17:57

I think a lot of women have grown up hearing how they won't be believed if they are raped and drunk, how it will be their fault if they were out and dressed a certain way, how walking home alone after a night out is "asking for it", how men who spike drinks never seem to be caught, how much drinking damages your body and is linked to cancer, the sheer cost compared to the potential regret and thought...maybe not.

houseydncf · 16/02/2024 18:22

Yeah they're all doing ket instead!

96waystobehappy · 16/02/2024 18:25

For those of you saying it’s COL that’s stopping them you have clearly forgotten the lengths that the youth will go to, to be connected with other youths.
Thats what drove my generation (44) to go out and work from about 14 on Saturday’s. If all your friends were going out and you had no money, you would go regardless!!

To me it’s startlingly obvious why the youth don’t drink. They make their connections online from the safety of their homes. Drinking culture comes about from putting yourself in situations where you have to be fun, dance and talk to people you cannot get away from. You need to be confident to do these things. These things are much harder sober so people drink to do them.

The youth are living their lives through the internet.

Of course, times change and we will be accused of not moving with the times by being fearful of this change. However, I think this is a little bit different than worrying about rock and roll or the mini skirt. By connecting only online, young people are losing the skills to connect in person. They are fearful of real interaction.

Anyone who is not worried about this march towards singular lives, cut off from others, is far more of an optimist than me.

Anyone who can’t piece together the explosion of mental health problems in the young and this enormous change in human behaviour has their head in the sand.

I say this as the Mother of teens who use the internet far too much and it scares the life out of me. They are sporty and sociable but there’s literally no one to play with / no where to go because everyone else is online. What can we do?? Force them to do nothing, force them to hang out with me? So difficult.

Im not sure what will become of us all 😢

Pixiedust49 · 16/02/2024 18:32

houseydncf · 16/02/2024 18:22

Yeah they're all doing ket instead!

This is my experience too as a mum of teens. And really young… 13/14. Worrying.

LaPalmaLlama · 16/02/2024 18:55

I think as with most things there are a host of factors which together mean that younger people, on average, drink less than people of the same age drank, in say, the late 1990's

  • harder to get served underage so you start drinking at a later age and it's less ingrained by legal age- we used to just ask an adult to buy us cider /beer and give them the money and they usually did. Weekend drinking age 16/17 was totally normal. Our "ID" was so dodgy but no-one cared so long as you had some.
  • teens hang out in person far less so there's not the situation where you're bored in the park and thinking "shall we try to buy some cider"?
  • people live with their parents much longer and you can't party like you live in a flat share when you live with your parents in your twenties unless they are extremely liberal (and deaf).
  • Social media and the fear of photos of you off your head being posted everywhere.
  • Behaviour modelling by sports stars- football players were always getting off their tits and busted by the tabloids. Now they barely drink during the season. I think this has knocked on to sporty teens whereas before it was quite a boozy culture.
  • Money

So there are loads of things. I'm happy they are drinking less. I just wish it made them happier.

ScareBrow · 16/02/2024 19:00

Has anyone on this thread got university-aged kids? My two and their friends are going to Wetherspoons and some clubs, drinking some alcohol, not taking drugs and just seem to be pretty ‘ordinary’. Are they really not the norm then?

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