To wonder how we survived without constantly drinking water while working in previous decades?

[Chinsupmeloves]

A bit lighthearted but also a serious question!

Looking back at all the jobs I've had from age 16, working while at university and career after, it wasn't commonplace to have a Stanley or filled bottle nearby. We had breaks and mostly had a quick coffee and a food, same at lunchtime. No one took bottles of water, hot drinks or cans, that was it! At school also, juice at break and lunch then drink water at home.

A) On the one hand I feel the obsession with keeping hydrated has been propelled by the manufacturers of drinking vessels, especially with the imprinted quantities for times of the day, insulated to keep cool and so on. From this POV it seems OTT when people are walking around a supermarket with their bottles with the fear their bodies may shrivel up. In schools, having them on their desks, the bottle flipping, guzzling down a litre of juice from home in the first 10 mins of a lesson then desperate for the toilet, stating it's a human right to drink til you busrt! In addition the sales of plastic bottles of water to continue to carry around, you should see the bins overflowing with them in every classroom, so much for encouraging environmental values.

B) I've also realised yes it is important to keep hydrated during the day and we need more than a few cups of coffee as fluid to keep us sustained. I was one of the few, as a teacher, who would bring in a small carton of juice to sip at (days before reusable were used for anyrhing than to clip on your bike) as I got thirsty! I was however told off, that I shouldn't be drinking those few sips during lessons, yes truth. It was only a bit as drinking more would mean I would need to go to the loo, which I knew was impossible at break times when on duty or lunch when I had meetings, detentions, extra tuition. To walk to the staff toilets meant 2 blocks away outside, flights of stairs and a queue, so it was a scheduled comfort.

Back to the point...

AIBR Drinking during breaks and lunch is perfectly adequate, no need for constant sipping, especially in schools where it can cause so much disruption by those who take the mick.

AIBU We need to consistently sip to help us with talking, feeling well and focus.

As an adult I now value being able to have a bottle nearby at work, in the car on long journeys, but not a constant need everywhere I go. Xxx

There were public drinking fountains when I was a kid - we didn’t need to carry bottles of water because you could get a drink at a public fountain.

The idea that people were limited to a couple of drinks a day is not what I remember at all.

I was only thinking about this recently when reading a Famous Five book to my child — it’s one where they’re going on on a four-day hike at half term, staying at moorland farms, only carrying small kitbags with a change of clothes and buying food along the way. I’d never quite clocked how often they stop at a village shop to have an orangeade or ginger beer, or, when more remote, drink from a convenient spring. Of course it’s pre-plastics. They’d have had to buy and carry heavy glass bottles in order to have something drinkable with them.

And the stabbing the lid of a disposable bottle so they can use it as a water squirter...

If they just drank a bit here and there as needed rather than all the disruptive faffing, messing around, wanting to refill or being bursting for the toilet, that would be fine. (Plus all the disruptive shennanigans that go on in the toilets...)

As a child of the 80s/90s and having enough stuff to carry without adding in a bottle, I'm living proof that you don't have to drink every 5 minutes to be decently hydrated.

I have a huge Stanley, the constant low level headaches and frequent utis that I had in my youth have gone. It just reminds me to drink more too constantly having it with me, a positive thing for me.

also the straw is clean I just wash it with a straw brush and fairy liquid, not complicated.

The whole water drinking craze is ridiculous.

It’s not really a craze though, is it? It’s just something that over time we have learned is good for us.

@Chinsupmelovesyes it’s been more of a problem since lockdown. They should be able to cope for 2 lessons feeling a bit thirsty. They make a huge fuss if you ask them to stop swigging. If it’s not water I ask for it to go back in their bag & that creates drama. Then it’s always the ones swigging who insist on needing the loo. It didn’t used to be like this & students used to be able to manage themselves better. I think it’s linked to being wired up due to being constantly online. So they can’t just sit & be. They have to be doing something with their hands & find it harder to sit still.

That said I do let someone who seems desperate use the loo as if they are full of water they could potentially have an accident. But it’s always the same kids asking.

No one is “constantly sipping”. But it’s good to keep hydrated however much some like
to make mock.

I have to take medication that gives you a very dry mouth. I do drink plenty of water. I don’t like the idea that some people find this so ridiculous .

Funny I had this exact thought today! My memory is that we only really had drinks with meals, or if you felt thirsty you would get a drink, but no one carried water around with them all day.

My daughter was amazed when I told her our school had a tuck shop that sold only chocolate and crisps and a coke machine 🤣

I think it is a good thing to stay hydrated, but I also think a lot of it is marketing, and we get a lot of fluid through food which counts towards our 2L or whatever it is a day, but the water companies and bottle makers don't want to promote that!

I spent my entire school life permanently dehydrated as we weren't allowed drinks in the classroom and bottled water for breaktime wasn't a thing. Only water at lunchtime with school dinners or usual squash with a packet lunch.

I genuinely never once in 13 years of education went to the loo at school.

I have a designated drawer for lids! 🥴

Adults in the 80s in office jobs had a coffee percolator sitting there and refilled constantly. It wasn’t strange to have 30 cups of drip coffee a day at the office, remember that when you say we never used to need this liquid. A bottle of water seems very healthy and low key in comparison.

Schools had what we called bubblers. Parks had drinking fountains. You could always find some water to drink in the city. They all started disappearing - for hygiene reasons I guess.

We used to smoke at our desks too.

Ahh the good ol’ days 😀

I ended up in hospital with dehydration when I was at primary school back in the 80s. I remember getting lots of headaches, as do my friends, so I think it’s a good thing that people, especially kids have more opportunity to drink now.

No sense. That’s not how kidneys work.

I, and my friends, are all 55+ and none of us drink anything like 12 cups of tea a day, nor did my parents.

Tea and coffee are really dehydrating and bad for you. No one should be drinking 12 cups of either a day!
I get that there's an element of commercialism to the bottles etc but it started way back with the 80s supermodels carrying those big bottles of evian etc and saying their skin and bodies were all down to drinking litres of water a day. This isn't something new just the vessels have changed now we are more conscious of the environment and micro plastics.

I’m 37 and at 7 once became so badly dehydrated I was hospitalised. My parents were by no means negligent or neglectful. Nor was the initial gp who saw me, they just didn’t get the importance of drinking water. The second gp who saw me got it though, he wasn’t born in the UK, would have seen such cases before and fully understood why.

I’m very sensitive to being even slightly thirsty to this day.

I don’t think it’s a bad thing that people, child or adult, can drink whenever they wish to now, rather than at prescribed times.

I think the 2 gallon plastic tankards that I often see being carted around are probably a bit much, considering tap water and a glass will do the job perfectly well across the entirety of the UK.

they're not dehydrating. People used to think they were but it’s been mostly disproven

What was the amount of water that the nephrologist suggested drinking? And what was the numbers that you were drinking when you were under hydrated and well hydrated? As far as i am aware the recommendation is to drink 2 litres of fluids a day. That 2 litres includes tea, coffee, soup, beer etc. not just water. 2 litres does not require one to carry round a water bottle all day. I know people that drink 5 litres of water a day. All of that fluid has to be processed by the body, including by the kidneys.it puts pressure on the kidneys.

The big containers of bottled water are a fad. It will pass.

In 20 years time it will be a reminisce. “Do you remember when we used to lug around those huge bottles of water everywhere we went, and they even had a built in straw. God, we must have looked ridiculous.”

I’ve read that tea isn’t dehydrating. I don’t know about coffee.

When I go the supermarket I walk at least 40 minutes to get there, sometimes up to 90 minutes if I go the scenic route. And then 40 minutes back. So sometimes , especially in hot weather, I will take a bottle of water. I really don’t understand people getting annoyed with other people for having a water bottle whilst they’re shopping - you have no idea what their situation is and it literally doesn’t affect you at all!

Capitalism finds a way….selling us water which is free from the tap in Europe, as well as fancy bottles to drink it out of. Madness.

I’ve had the same battered water bottle for 5 years. Stanley cups are such a cliche. Plus I read that alot of straw sucking encourages wrinkles!