Are you a wine drinker?

[DawnM]

I was a little surprised yesterday.  I was talking to a co-worker.  I know she and her husband love drinking wine, but I guess I didn't realize how much.  She said they drink a bottle a night, and more on weekends.  They like more expensive wines and told me they spend hundreds per month on wine.  

Hundreds?  I guess I can see it is possible, I just can't imagine spending hundreds per month on wine......but at even $10/day, yeah, that would be hundreds.

I like wine, but I rarely drink it at home, I do have some on our yearly girls' beach trip, and I have some with friends at homes if I am offered some, but I don't even think I spend hundreds per year, much less per month.

This isn't a judgement if you spend a lot, I guess I just hadn't thought it through before.

Do you like good wine?  Do you drink it nightly?  Weekly? 

[J-rap]

I rarely drank anything for years and years...  Maybe 3 glasses of wine/year and that was it.  In the past few years, since we've become empty nesters, we've learned to enjoy wine.  Kind of a fun hobby we've gotten into.  I/We have a glass almost every night with dinner.  I feel very French that way.  ?  I went to my first wine tasting about two years ago.  I'm learning a little about it and learning what I like, and my tastes are changing as I learn.  But a bottle a night?  And more on the weekends?  That does seem like a lot to me!

Edited October 2, 2018 by J-rap

[SKL]

Not me.  I do know some people for whom it's sort of a hobby.  I never asked how much they spend, but I am sure they wouldn't bat an eye at "hundreds per month."

My mom drinks white zinfandel pretty often.  Not sure if it's every day, but she keeps a box of that inexpensive brand with the plastic spigot in her kitchen.  My dad likes some wines too, and again I'm not sure how often he drinks it now that he's retired and doesn't have to work.  ?  Not expensive stuff though.

Anyhoo ... this OP makes me feel better about the amount of $$ I spend on traveling.  It's one splurge, and most of us have one thing we splurge on if we can.

[regentrude]

I drink wine and can appreciate good wine, but I only have maybe a glass a week. My husband is a wine lover and has a glass of wine most nights. He takes wine seriously, but is not spending huge amounts of money.

We have a friend who is a serious wine collector (well stocked climate controlled cellar) and puts substantial money into this interest.He drinks one bottle over the course of three days when he is on his own, more with company, and is very generous in sharing his collection. It is one of his two big hobbies.

[J'swife]

I drink wine and my neighbor and I will split a bottle probably 1-2 nights during the week and drink 2-3 bottles over the weekend.  We don't buy really expensive wine, usually Fish Eye with runs about $13.99 for the box or about $5-6 a bottle if we buy bottles or Aldi or Walmart cheap wine. Between dh & I we easily spend $100-$200 a month on alcohol

[HomeAgain]

I love good wine.  Love it.  However, even when we lived where good wine was about $6/bottle and REALLY good wine was $12-20, our consumption was 1-2 bottles a week.  But we could get a table wine for about $2.50 for a quarter bottle, which was just right for two people. 
Right now it's about half a bottle with dinner and the other half being saved for another night.  About 4x a year we go to the wine store and pick up 12-16 bottles so we always have a pairing on hand.  So I guess I like wine when it enhances a meal?  A bottle each night and more on the weekends sounds excessive to me.  It sounds like something's missing.

[Pawz4me]

I wasn't a drinker at all until a few years ago. I developed a nightly jaw clenching problem (no doubt due to stressful life events) that was affecting my dental health. My dentist recommended trying a glass of wine before bed. I  found a relatively inexpensive brand that I liked, and it did help. For awhile I was drinking it nightly, and then tapered off to just when needed. That got a little spendy because I was throwing out so much wine. But now I'm on medication that has some potentially serious liver side effects, and drinking alcohol is a no no. So far the jaw clenching hasn't been an issue. I suppose if it crops up again I'll have to get a night guard or medication.

So long way of saying . . .no, not currently.

[teachermom2834]

I like wine and drink it frequently but that is a lot of wine. My dh doesn’t drink so that would be like me drinking a half a bottle a night myself. Expense aside that would be way too much for me. I know people and their tolerances and body sizes are different but for me that would indicate a problem. 

I like wine and I am not a prude about alcohol but there are an awful lot of functional alcoholics out there and craft beers and the popularity of wine make it easy to cover. Not saying your friends are that way but that much wine would have me drunk every night. 

[Spryte]

I love good wine.  DH travels often with his Parisian CEO, who is a wine aficionado.  Fortunately for me, DH brings his newfound knowledge home to share, and sometimes some very expensive bottles, too.  We generally save those for occasions.  ?

We are members of the NPR wine club (their wines are pretty darn good!), which was a holiday gift from DH’s company.  And we buy wines from Costco in the $13-$16 range.

We often have a small glass at night, but not every night.  Maybe a couple times a week.  A good wine stopper is essential to saving a bottle for a few nights.

I guess we are beverage people, hahaha! We are also members of the Camano Island Roasters coffee club and have fresh roasted beans delivered every three weeks.  

 

[marbel]

Drinking half a bottle of wine a night, every night, would be too much for me/my husband, but occasionally we will finish a bottle in a night.   Right now we are not spending much money, so we limit ourselves to a bottle a week, and we stay in the $10 range.  When we were dating and first married, we took wine classes and did a lot of tasting (we lived about 1.5 hours from Napa and a couple of hours from other Cali wine areas)  so it was a hobby for us.  I can imagine it would be easy to spend hundreds a month on good wines even without drinking an entire bottle every night.  There may have been times in our life when we spent hundreds a month.  $20-25 bottles add up fast.

[TravelingChris]

 

I only drink a little wine (like max. half a glass) very occasionally.  But that is only because I am on both a blood thinner (and that is actually why I had a half glass of wine on Sunday, because I had eaten too much food that has vitamin K and needed to counteract that) and also because I am on a number of medications that affect the liver.  All my doctors have said that what I do, very occasional, very light drinking is fine. Oh and I only drink white or rose, since red gives me a migraine.

[Rachel]

No wine here, I don’t care for the taste. I don’t know any wine collectors but I definitely have friends who have a glass a day. 

I went to a business dinner with my husband a couple years ago and missed signaling the server that I didn’t want wine.  I politely took a sip when everyone toasted, and then left my wine alone. My husband’s boss had purchased a very expensive bottle of wine, noticed I wasn’t drinking it, and thought I snubbing his choice. He offered several times to get me a different wine. He just couldn’t fathom a person who doesn’t like wine. I was really trying not to make a big deal and ended up causing a spectacle. 

[PrincessMommy]

I drink very occasionally.  Perhaps 1x per month.  My husband likes a glass of wine most nights as we're watching tv.   A bottle a night sounds a bit excessive... if it's shared between two people, maybe that's only 2 glass per person or slightly more.  See how much I know about wine! LOL.

 

[gardenmom5]

don't drink at all.

I recall a business dinner we attended years ago. per person, more was spent on the wine than the food.

 

eta: I agree with princess mommy, the bottle + per night (average) seems excessive.

Edited October 2, 2018 by gardenmom5

[Miss Tick]

I like wine but limit any alcohol consumption to an occasional weekend drink for cost and health reasons and because I drive kids around so darn much! It is hard for me to imagine relaxing with a glass of wine at 8:55 on a Monday night when I have just reopened from 4 hours of dropping off and picking up. ?

In the old days when we drank wine more regularly, we tracked it as a separate budget category.

[MysteryJen]

Dh and I mostly drink beer, but if we have wine (maybe 1 bottle every 6 weeks) it is because we used it in making dinner and then we might finish the bottle. I think a bottle is slightly too much for 2 (but not if you use a half-glass or more in cooking) and perfect for 3 people.

We definitely don't drink expensive wine, but we do like craft beer.  It's a line item in the grocery budget.

[sassenach]

My mom and her husband drink a bottle a night. I don’t think it’s healthy. They are part of a winery club and get shipments, but mostly I think they buy Costco wine. 

Currently, I’m buying a bottle every week or 2. Dh has been on more of a beer kick. At one point I was drinking a glass every night but I have since pulled back to a glass for 3 or 4 nights in a row and then nothing for a week. 

[Terabith]

Wow.  That seems like a lot of money to spend on wine.  No, I'm not really a wine drinker.  I'm not morally opposed or anything; I just don't really like the taste of much alcohol.  Every once in awhile if I'm with other people drinking wine, I'll drink a third of a glass or so just to try it, and I have discovered some that I don't mind, but none that I really like enough to drink routinely.  

[BeachGal]

I cannot tell the difference between cheap wine and expensive wine. Maybe that means I could just buy the cheap stuff and be good but I'm not a fan of wine by itself or beer. I do like sangria, margaritas and other cocktails but limit myself to three per week and would limit it more if the places where I drink would offer herbal tea drinks or mocktails.

[Spryte]

Kind of a tangent, but related, so hopefully not highjacking the thread:

For those of you who drink beer, I’m curious about what’s an average on that?  Is that a daily thing?  Weekly?  I don’t drink beer, at all, and DH only drinks it occasionally when traveling (his office is in Munich, beer is part of the culture), or if we are hosting his colleagues (again - German).  Once in a while, he will buy an imported beer that’s hard to find.

Once every few - 6 months, we have friends over and will make cocktails.  DH can make a mean martini.  And I can do an amazing pineapple upside down martini.  But we can control the amount of alcohol in those, and limit those to one drink at a time, and it’s not something we do often, more like an occasion type thing.

No one in our house, friends or people who live here, ever drink to the point of being drunk.  And of course no driving if anyone has consumed anything.

I feel like, and could be wrong, the people I know of who are beer drinkers are more likely to have multiple drinks at a time.  Is that true?

Actually, with the recent studies about alcohol and health, I find that DH and I are drinking even less.

Edited October 2, 2018 by Spryte

[KungFuPanda]

I LIKE wine, but I just don’t know much about it. I probably average 1-3 glasses a MONTH. I’m such a lightweight that I need a friend or two to kill a bottle. Sometimes Dh and I can pull this off, but I won’t be awake very long if I have a second glass.

I did enjoy this one at dinner this weekend: 

[scholastica]

I do like wine, but I would not do what your friends are doing. I have family members that did that for two+ decades and are now in very poor health because of it.

[Liz CA]

No. I like my liver too much. 

I used to drink a quarter glass for some festive occasion but because I do not metabolize alcohol well, it has never enhanced my experience of anything.

[LucyStoner]

I like wine but it’s not a hobby and we don’t drink alcoholic beverages daily or even weekly.  We had friends over for dinner in Saturday and between the 4 of us, we finished the bottle.  That was the first bottle I’ve opened in a month or more.  

That said, a bottle in a single night for a couple is 2 or 3, 4 to 5 ounce glasses each.  That doesn’t seem necessarily excessive. 

[LucyStoner]

2 hours ago, Spryte said:

Kind of a tangent, but related, so hopefully not highjacking the thread:

For those of you who drink beer, I’m curious about what’s an average on that?  Is that a daily thing?  Weekly?  I don’t drink beer, at all, and DH only drinks it occasionally when traveling (his office is in Munich, beer is part of the culture), or if we are hosting his colleagues (again - German).  Once in a while, he will buy an imported beer that’s hard to find.

Once every few - 6 months, we have friends over and will make cocktails.  DH can make a mean martini.  And I can do an amazing pineapple upside down martini.  But we can control the amount of alcohol in those, and limit those to one drink at a time, and it’s not something we do often, more like an occasion type thing.

No one in our house, friends or people who live here, ever drink to the point of being drunk.  And of course no driving if anyone has consumed anything.

I feel like, and could be wrong, the people I know of who are beer drinkers are more likely to have multiple drinks at a time.  Is that true?

Actually, with the recent studies about alcohol and health, I find that DH and I are drinking even less.

 

I know more than a few beer drinkers who will polish off a six pack over the course of a night, sometimes more.  

I drink beer rarely and never more than 1.  I can’t even finish a stout in one sitting- a few weeks ago, I had brunch with a friend and ordered a coffee stout and while it was good, I just couldn’t get through more than 1/2 of it.  

Edited October 2, 2018 by LucyStoner

[marbel]

2 hours ago, Spryte said:

Kind of a tangent, but related, so hopefully not highjacking the thread:

For those of you who drink beer, I’m curious about what’s an average on that?  Is that a daily thing?  Weekly?  I don’t drink beer, at all, and DH only drinks it occasionally when traveling (his office is in Munich, beer is part of the culture), or if we are hosting his colleagues (again - German).  Once in a while, he will buy an imported beer that’s hard to find.

Once every few - 6 months, we have friends over and will make cocktails.  DH can make a mean martini.  And I can do an amazing pineapple upside down martini.  But we can control the amount of alcohol in those, and limit those to one drink at a time, and it’s not something we do often, more like an occasion type thing.

No one in our house, friends or people who live here, ever drink to the point of being drunk.  And of course no driving if anyone has consumed anything.

I feel like, and could be wrong, the people I know of who are beer drinkers are more likely to have multiple drinks at a time.  Is that true?

Actually, with the recent studies about alcohol and health, I find that DH and I are drinking even less.

I know a lot of beer drinkers and I haven't noticed that. Some people drink multiple, some don't. People I know seem to regulate themselves just fine.  So I don't know if it's true, I just haven't noticed it.  I don't consider two beers over the course of the evening when there is food being consumed to be excessive.  And, some people probably drink daily, and some don't.

When we have gatherings here, we don't keep track of peoples' consumption but we do notice behavior and have arranged rides home for people a time or two. More likely I'll notice that one-half of a couple will drink more than the other.  No one has ever gotten roaring/obnoxious drunk, just tipsy to the point that we'd rather they not drive.  I don't equate having one drink with being unable to drive; it really depends on the person.  

 

[Arcadia]

2 hours ago, Spryte said:

For those of you who drink beer, I’m curious about what’s an average on that?  Is that a daily thing?  

 

My FIL drinks eight 22oz bottles daily of Guinness Stout/Draught when he was working, and now when his kids pay for his beer. He doesn’t have a pension so he has cut down on daily consumption due to budget. He drinks more here in USA than back home in Asia because beer is so cheap here so he drinks beer instead of water.

My husband brings home wine and beer from office parties. He drinks rarely partially because he sees how much his dad spent on beer when he was growing up. That would have paid for some household needs.

[rebcoola]

I am a pretty heavy wine drinker but not quite that bad.  I have wine or beer every night but only a glass. On Friday and Saturday I may have more it depends on what we are doing.    We drink usually in the $10-35 bottle range we have a couple of memberships to local wineries and cellars.  In the winter we tend to do more beer I love a good stout or porter  but the stuff I like is usually more expensive than the wine.  On really special occasions I drink good Scotch.  My dad is an Irish bar owner and we live in wine country so drinking is a big part of life.

[sassenach]

4 hours ago, Spryte said:

Kind of a tangent, but related, so hopefully not highjacking the thread:

For those of you who drink beer, I’m curious about what’s an average on that?  Is that a daily thing?  Weekly?  I don’t drink beer, at all, and DH only drinks it occasionally when traveling (his office is in Munich, beer is part of the culture), or if we are hosting his colleagues (again - German).  Once in a while, he will buy an imported beer that’s hard to find.

Once every few - 6 months, we have friends over and will make cocktails.  DH can make a mean martini.  And I can do an amazing pineapple upside down martini.  But we can control the amount of alcohol in those, and limit those to one drink at a time, and it’s not something we do often, more like an occasion type thing.

No one in our house, friends or people who live here, ever drink to the point of being drunk.  And of course no driving if anyone has consumed anything.

I feel like, and could be wrong, the people I know of who are beer drinkers are more likely to have multiple drinks at a time.  Is that true?

Actually, with the recent studies about alcohol and health, I find that DH and I are drinking even less.

We’re more craft beer drinkers than 6 pack of Bud type people. We almost never drink more than 1 beer in a day. We probably drink something (beer, wine, or mixed drink) 2-3 times a week. Usually it’s just 1 normal-sized drink in a sitting. 

[sassenach]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

 

My FIL drinks eight 22oz bottles daily of Guinness Stout/Draught when he was working, and now when his kids pay for his beer. He doesn’t have a pension so he has cut down on daily consumption due to budget. He drinks more here in USA than back home in Asia because beer is so cheap here so he drinks beer instead of water.

My husband brings home wine and beer from office parties. He drinks rarely partially because he sees how much his dad spent on beer when he was growing up. That would have paid for some household needs.

Would you say that he’s an alcoholic? That’s a lot of beer. 

[Arcadia]

17 minutes ago, sassenach said:

Would you say that he’s an alcoholic? That’s a lot of beer. 

 

Yes and No. The amount of beer he drinks depends on how much he can afford. Would he walk away from “free” beer, definately not.  Would he go into credit card debt to buy beer, no he won’t. He could survive without beer if he stays at home, there is no beer left in the house and he has no fun money left. If he still has some fun money, he would walk and buy a can or bottle of beer from the supermarket near his home depending on how much money he has left. Their expenses fluctuate but he does have a few hundred to spend on beer money in a low expenditure month.

My late paternal uncle on the other hand is a classic/textbook alcoholic. He lived for alcohol. Alcohol literally comes before family. His wife had to work or their kids would be starving and homeless since he spent whatever he earned on alcohol.

[wintermom]

8 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

I wasn't a drinker at all until a few years ago. I developed a nightly jaw clenching problem (no doubt due to stressful life events) that was affecting my dental health. My dentist recommended trying a glass of wine before bed. I  found a relatively inexpensive brand that I liked, and it did help. For awhile I was drinking it nightly, and then tapered off to just when needed. That got a little spendy because I was throwing out so much wine. But now I'm on medication that has some potentially serious liver side effects, and drinking alcohol is a no no. So far the jaw clenching hasn't been an issue. I suppose if it crops up again I'll have to get a night guard or medication.

So long way of saying . . .no, not currently.

My dentist is boring. He just set me up with a night mouth guard. ?  The wine would be more fun. 

[G5052]

I used to drink a bottle or so a week. I really prefer red wines.

But the budget and some other factors came to play, and I don't drink any more. I miss it, but it's not something I have to have.

[Terabith]

4 hours ago, Arcadia said:

 

My FIL drinks eight 22oz bottles daily of Guinness Stout/Draught when he was working, and now when his kids pay for his beer. He doesn’t have a pension so he has cut down on daily consumption due to budget. He drinks more here in USA than back home in Asia because beer is so cheap here so he drinks beer instead of water.

My husband brings home wine and beer from office parties. He drinks rarely partially because he sees how much his dad spent on beer when he was growing up. That would have paid for some household needs.

EIGHT 22 oz bottles????  That's......that's a lot of beer.  That's a lot of water.  I'm just thinking of the calories.  Does he eat or drink anything else???

[HomeAgain]

7 hours ago, Spryte said:

Kind of a tangent, but related, so hopefully not highjacking the thread:

For those of you who drink beer, I’m curious about what’s an average on that?  Is that a daily thing?  Weekly?  I don’t drink beer, at all, and DH only drinks it occasionally when traveling (his office is in Munich, beer is part of the culture), or if we are hosting his colleagues (again - German).  Once in a while, he will buy an imported beer that’s hard to find.

Once every few - 6 months, we have friends over and will make cocktails.  DH can make a mean martini.  And I can do an amazing pineapple upside down martini.  But we can control the amount of alcohol in those, and limit those to one drink at a time, and it’s not something we do often, more like an occasion type thing.

No one in our house, friends or people who live here, ever drink to the point of being drunk.  And of course no driving if anyone has consumed anything.

I feel like, and could be wrong, the people I know of who are beer drinkers are more likely to have multiple drinks at a time.  Is that true?

Actually, with the recent studies about alcohol and health, I find that DH and I are drinking even less.

We live in the middle of lots of microbreweries, so take this as you will.  DH drinks beer.  He's very choosy, tries to buy local, and if he can't get local then he finds personal favorites.
I spent $22 two weeks ago on two 6 packs from local breweries.  There are 10 cans still in the fridge.  He'll have one or two while he watches a game.  For social drinking, I'll get a growler filled (I don't know how much that is.  It's like the size of a gallon milk jug but I'm sure that's not right).  2-3 guys will split the growler over the course of a night.


DH's dad is a borderline alcoholic.  Yes, he is fine when there is no alcohol in the house, but if there is ANY, there won't be because he will drink it all.  He simply can't let it be around him.  It's either gone or needs to be drunk.  Dh has become increasingly mindful of that as he gets older and monitors his consumption better.  He was not always that way, and if this was 20 years ago I'd say he'd be following the same path as his dad.

Now, the flip.  Dh and I rarely drink at the same time.  One of us prefers to be sober, especially since our kids have been known to preface stupid stunts with "watch this!" ? So either he will drink, or I will have some Bailey's in a late night coffee or a cheap beer with Mexican night.  If we have wine, it's limited to what would be a safe limit to drive with later in the evening.

[Arcadia]

8 minutes ago, Terabith said:

EIGHT 22 oz bottles????  That's......that's a lot of beer.  That's a lot of water.  I'm just thinking of the calories.  Does he eat or drink anything else???

 

He has a beer belly. He does eat meat with preference for red meat. He doesn’t drink anything else. 

[Terabith]

Not to mention how many moms talk about wine o'clock and talk about wine with the rhapsody of an alcoholic.  I actually find it a little creepy sometimes.  

[Farrar]

Count me among those concerned by the rise in drinking among white women, especially in the mom demographic.

Dh is an alcoholic, so we don't keep wine in the house. I drink when I'm out only. Which is fine. I enjoy a glass or two now and then, but I'm not super into it. Now that Underwood is so popular, I've thought about buying that for the house, but I don't really want to drink when I'm home by myself. It's one thing when I'm out with friends or even on a date night with dh when he's not drinking, but it's weird to me when I'm doing it solo.

My mother drinks that much easily. She can totally do a bottle in a night, unfortunately, though she doesn't usually, thankfully. I just got back from two  weeks in Europe with her and I think I drank more than I have in years while I was with just her. At least I had a lot of good rose, I guess.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Farrar

[J-rap]

2 hours ago, Terabith said:

Not to mention how many moms talk about wine o'clock and talk about wine with the rhapsody of an alcoholic.  I actually find it a little creepy sometimes.  

That does seem strange...  So mid-afternoon coffee has turned into mid-afternoon wine, with children around?  

[J-rap]

15 minutes ago, WendyAndMilo said:

What's wrong with drinking with children around?

That's a good question!  I guess I associate mid-afternoon coffee breaks with a need for rest and revival...  A mid-afternoon wine-break feels different, like it becomes more of a crutch.  But I could be dead-wrong.  Having it with a meal at dinner with children around seems different too, more about a nice dinner than a crutch.  See -- I'm reacting to my stereotypes.  I'm going to think about this...  (Thanks for the challenge!)

[Ali in OR]

I don't really like the taste of wine. I can sip one if necessary for social reasons, but it doesn't give me pleasure. I'll have a beer once a year or so when dining out (hefeweizen or IPA). I learned how to make a frozen strawberry margarita this summer, so I'm not a complete teetotaler, but for the most part I think I'm saving perhaps thousands of dollars a year by not being a drinker!

[KungFuPanda]

39 minutes ago, J-rap said:

That does seem strange...  So mid-afternoon coffee has turned into mid-afternoon wine, with children around?  

No. I think they’re mostly joking and women can’t even have that without being judged for bad parenting or called creepy for sharing a meme. 

[J-rap]

3 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

No. I think they’re mostly joking and women can’t even have that without being judged for bad parenting or called creepy for sharing a meme. 

Hmmm... Well, I guess I don't know anything about the memes and surely I'd know a joke if I heard it.  But, I'd also feel uncomfortable about men needing beer breaks to break up their daily afternoon childcare.  It would also depend on the culture and environment, though, for sure.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Yes I love wine, yes I have a glass of something nightly. Current favorite is Apothic, around $10 a bottle.

[HomeAgain]

9 hours ago, J-rap said:

Hmmm... Well, I guess I don't know anything about the memes and surely I'd know a joke if I heard it.  But, I'd also feel uncomfortable about men needing beer breaks to break up their daily afternoon childcare.  It would also depend on the culture and environment, though, for sure.

Yet nobody gives a thought to the use of the words "cocktail hour".  That has been ingrained in us as a social norm since about the 1930s.

[Carrie12345]

I drink wine.  I drink cheap, wussy wine.  (Generally pink.)  I have no interest in the world of swish and spit, lol. I think the most expensive bottle I've purchased was around $25, and only because I like the idea of supporting local wineries.  Sometimes I have a glass or two for multiple nights in a row. Sometimes I have a half-full bottle sit in the fridge for so long that I wonder whether it's gone bad or gotten better! 

Generally speaking, I don't order wine when I'm out.  I don't like it enough to pay the mark up.  I will order expensive fruity cocktails though, because I don't usually keep the various alcohols used at home.  Assuming I'm not driving, of course.

[SKL]

12 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

No. I think they’re mostly joking and women can’t even have that without being judged for bad parenting or called creepy for sharing a meme. 

Agree.  I'm a teetotaler and I "like" the memes because I can relate to the feeling they imply.

I also don't think it's wrong to drink around kids - I think if you're gonna drink, it's better to do it with people (responsibly) than alone.  Unless of course you literally have no opportunity for a sip until the kids are in bed (and I can relate to that too!).

[SKL]

12 hours ago, J-rap said:

Hmmm... Well, I guess I don't know anything about the memes and surely I'd know a joke if I heard it.  But, I'd also feel uncomfortable about men needing beer breaks to break up their daily afternoon childcare.  It would also depend on the culture and environment, though, for sure.

I seem to recall many TV commercials about guys deserving some beer with their buddies after a hard day's work.

[J-rap]

2 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

Yet nobody gives a thought to the use of the words "cocktail hour".  That has been ingrained in us as a social norm since about the 1930s.

Oh I agree!  And I'm not against cocktail hour.  But in what we're referring to, I had an image of a parent taking care of a bunch of small children in the middle of the day while going through a bottle of wine.  I guess I was taking it to an extreme.  I don't think it's wrong to drink responsibly in front of children.  

[Lady Florida.]

I like wine but mostly with a nice meal. I don't tend to like to drink it without food, even if that food is just fancy snacks (and I don't care for sweet dessert wines). It's not a hobby and I don't drink it (or any alcohol) very often. I grew up in an Italian-American family where wine was standard at holiday meals and Sunday dinner. Older teens in the family were allowed to have half a glass on holidays only. 

Wine doesn't have to be expensive to be good. Aldi wines have repeatedly won awards and most of theirs are $10-$15 a bottle, and many are even less than $10.  A co-worker of dh's recently gave me this Cabernet Sauvignon from a local (sort-of) winery, and it was wonderful and less than $15. 

A half bottle a night every night with more on weekends seems excessive to me but I don't know them so I won't judge. If they split a bottle that's probably what, 2 or 2-1/2 glasses each? That's not a lot but having that every night doesn't seem healthy. The research on wine and whether or not it has benefits has been so fluid lately. And the amount that's healthy keeps changing based on different studies. 

I found this book years ago at a used book sale and we (me, dh, and a few other couples) talked about going through it and taking turns at each others' houses but we never got around to it. I eventually gave the book away. 

Edited October 3, 2018 by Lady Florida.