How much do you drink? Honestly!

[Starlight1984]

And yes, yes I know there is an "alcohol support" section of MN but this isn't for help or advice or anything other than curiosity!

Just been reading on another thread about what people do and don't do which others would find unusual and a LOT of the posts include people saying they don't drink alcohol which I find insane as pretty much everyone I know drinks to some degree!

Anyway I'll start, I don't (or try not to!) drink from Mon - Thurs but on average will have a bottle of wine on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. So 3 x bottles of wine a week. I know it's above the guidelines of "normal" drinking and know I need to cut down but it's something I genuinely enjoy. DH is the same. We never get drunk. We just slowly drink 3-4 glasses over the course of the evening (from about 6pm to 11ish) whilst making dinner, sitting down to eat, watching a film / reading a book... It's just something that helps us to unwind after a busy week!

So for AIBU

YABU - No thanks, would rather have a cup of tea.
YANBU - Pour me a large one!

Ok I was (semi) joking. But the last time I was at the doctors was for a contraceptive review and it's just a general question that they ask. If I told them I drink 3 bottles of wine a week rather than the 1.5 I admit to, they're not going to give a shit apart from telling me to cut down!

They're not going to send an otherwise healthy, 41 year old woman off for a load of tests because she drinks 25-30 units of alcohol a week.

Wouldn’t drink Monday to Friday unless there was something special on like a midweek concert or something. Hardly ever! Ds12 has an early football match every Saturday morning so Friday drinking is a big no!
Dh & I would usually drink 1.5/2 bottles of wine between us on a Saturday night with whatever series we are watching.
We go out every couple of months and he might drink maybe 5 pints and I’d have bottles of beer. 5 or 6 maybe. Luckily for my liver we live in the arse end of nowhere so going out is tricky. If we lived in civilisation we’d be out a lot more!

Me too.😁

OH and I drink most days. I have alcohol free days if there is a need, eg if I play sport in the evening, if I have an early start the next day, if I am taking antibiotics, etc, and that doesn't worry me.

I try to keep to 3 or 4 drinks a night - that would be half or 1 bottle of cider and 1 or 2 glasses of wine (so around 5 units a night). OH drinks a lot more.

I was truly surprised to see the amount of people on the other thread who don't drink alcohol and thought "That can't possibly be true!

@Starlight1984 , I think you are correct in what you say in your post, and what we see here is that the people who don't drink / don't approve of drinking are very much more vocal than the people who quietly get on with drinking reasonable amounts of alcohol.

In my early 30’s before DC, I was in a job where the boss would talk about wine o’clock etc and couldn’t wait to get home for a glass of wine. I’d smile along and agree and go home to my fizzy water. So if you worked with me, you might think I was drinking the same as you but I wasn’t, I was just playing politics with the culture she started in the office. So glad I’m out of that type of world now!

Back in my 20's early 30's I drank to the point of inebriation 4 nights a week. Since having my children, I may have one drink a month and I usually don't finish that. It has just lost its appeal.

Same here - I dont drink, am slim, fit and dont do drugs.

I am a bit perplexed by OP's assertion that anyone who doesnt drink must be either obese or on drugs 😂🤣

Why do people "have" to have vices to enjoy life anyway? smoking, drinking and drugs hold zero appeal to me because they make you feel like shit and reduce your quality of life. I used to work in the NHS and having seen the frankly, terrifying physical results of such vices I choose not to do them precisely because life is too short for liver disease, brain damage and COPD.

I do this too which is how I manage to keep 4 days off I think!

It’s pretty much zero. Someone bought me a bottle of wine for my birthday (inward groan from me) several months ago and it sat in my fridge unopened until last week. I thought I’d try a glass but struggled to get through it and the remains are still in the fridge. I’ll end up using it in a stew or something.

I like a beer on a very hot day but I drink the non-alcoholic kind and it would be just one glass or can.

I think I’m probably either allergic or intolerant as alcohol really gives me no pleasure at all. I’d rather have a bar of chocolate.

I used to drink a fair bit but my tolerance has never been huge. In the last year I've massively cut down as it was impacting my sleep and hormones and so I was maybe having 1 or possibly 2 small drinks per month.

These days I'll have either between 0-3 drinks per week depending on plans. Glasses of wine are v small (125ml or less) and so are beers (often share a can with DH). A bottle of wine will last us a week between us, easily. I quite happily will go out of an evening and not drink at all. This would have felt impossible to me in my 30s.

I agree it might be generational - I know quite a lot of women in their 60s and early 70s from various groups I attend and they seem to be the demographic who drink wine at home several times a week, at whom all the 'gin' and 'prosecco' birthday cards etc are aimed.
My peers in their 40s drank heavily in their 20s but have now largely stopped, and our teen children don't like 'getting wasted' (after their first year or two experimenting with the novelty of alcohol now and again).

I watched a youtube video a couple of days ago by a medical professional who said after seeing what they have seen over the years they would recommend people don’t smoke or vape and have no alcohol, it’s just poison.

I don't think its that surprising that more than average numbers of people who don't drink (or just at Christmas etc) are on Mumsnet - we're hardly meeting our social needs down the pub. 😅

As I said before, I've never been much of a drinker anyway. My mum friends offline used to drink a lot prekids, but much less so now with young kids, especially my two closest friends who are now single mums. They will have a drink on a night out but those aren't common. One has just divorced her alcoholic ex, they both drank too much prekids, but he couldn't/wouldn't stop when they had kids and that became a problem.

So there is also how having young kids affects women's alcohol consumption too.

Lavender and linden teabag I have before bed.

Can't stand the smell of alcohol.

Nothing. Sober since 2017.

I think not drinking is more normal than it used to be.
I am teetoal, and so are most of my friends. However, we all go to the gym and are generally quite health conscious (don’t smoke or vape either).

The smell of whiskey and brandy actually makes me 🤢 they smell disgusting.

I'm a single mum and despite my name on here I only drink socially. So about twice a month and not to excess (that often)
I'm currently on holiday and have been having a few cocktails from the AI as it would be rude not to!
I did drink a lot in my youth but now in my 40s I don't feel the need. However if I get a new partner I wouldn't be adverse to sharing a bottle of wine on weekend nights.

Nothing sun to Thurs. Fri sat one small glass of wine or cider. So a bottle of wine would last me 3 or 4 weeks.

If out for a meal more likely to not drink and drive.

Once or twice a year I might go out and have several drinks at a social eg if work put Me up in a hotel, then max one bottle.

If I drank one bottle in an evening, no matter how long that evening was, I would definitely be more than tipsy, id be properly drunk. So I think you might be kidding yourself there OP and your brain is quite accustomed to the alcohol at this point.

I did plenty of damage to my liver in my teens though so I've no moral high ground 😆

I am a bit perplexed by OP's assertion that anyone who doesnt drink must be either obese or on drugs 😂🤣

What?! Where on earth did you get that from?! What I actually said was that people may have other vices but don't admit to them because they know they will be judged! Everyone on MN is always super critical to jump on if anyone dare admit that they drink more than a "small sherry at Christmas" or a "nice cider on a hot day".

I was being honest with my post and knew it would open me up to criticism. I said myself I know I need to cut down, I am not being defensive at all, but I also said the thread was for people to talk about how much they drink openly, not be judged for it.

Never been a drinker even when young. I am now 70 and have a glass of wine once or twice a month. I might have a glass of non alcoholic wine or beer once a week.

I am just not fussed about alcohol

Strange how moving into my 40s I just cannot tolerate any alcohol. Yes, DH drinks single malts occasionally and it's disgusting the absolute stench 🤢

Since being diagnosed with breast cancer,
I don’t drink at all. Just to mention drinking can significantly increase your life time risk of developing breast cancer, so it would be wise to reduce the amount you drink.

Hmmm. You say that you find it "insane" that people dont drink and have said over and over again in this thread that regular drinking is completely normal in your social circle but then here, you seem to be justifying it. Why?

If its so "normal" as you say and you feel fine about it, why the need to justify it so heavily?

For the record, I couldnt give a flying toss what anyone else drinks but from what you've said, I dont think you are quite as comfortable with it as you make out.

You're right, OP. I don't drink to excess at all, but I do consume more sugar than I should. I don't suppose that there are many of us who don't have any vices.

That said, I recognise that I need to cut down on sugar, and I'm making efforts to do so. Hopefully those who need to cut down on alcohol will be making similar efforts in that direction.

There isn't much point in any of us standing in judgment over each other!

Once a week at home, no more than 1. If I go out I will have 1 drink, but never more than twice in a row. Special occasions more - just back from holiday and did drink most days, 1 or 2 glasses of wine and maybe a cocktail. Christmas lunch with friends - also more than 2 glasses, but not much.