To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
6 Responses
I think these comments pretty well sum up my family. Alcohol as used but never abused until their later year. Family alcohol use went back at least 2 generations that I know of. After I left home my younger siblings had to deal with my father’s abuse. A lot of stories to share there but not here. I especially heard “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” from my mother. Although he was never an abuser. My father was at the end of his life.
Correction to my post: the 3rd sentence should read “I never saw either one over-drink.”
When I was young my parents had a drink only on special occasions. Later in life they would indulge in a “nightcap”. I never saw either one over drunk.
Dad was extremely reserved and quiet. He outlived my mom by many years. In those later years I enjoyed those “nightcaps” with him when I visited, because after 1 1/2 drinks he would tell stories about his past I had never heard before. When he hit his 80’s he quit the nightcaps because they bothered his sleep.
I can’t blame my parents for my over-drinking. In fact, I didn’t really over drink until my late 40’s, when daily drinking invisibly crept up into occasional over-drinking, then after retirement into more frequent over-drinking. One factor of my over-drinking was that I wanted to be different from my family of origin, and fit in with social circles who drank more (but were not heavy drinkers). Drinking became a part of daily life even though that is not how I was raised.
Like the other commenters, drinking was part of my parent’s daily life. When Dad got home from work, they always sat down for 2 beers before dinner. In my childhood years, I don’t remember them drinking after dinner. My mother grew up with an abusive, heavy drinking father and she always drank in moderation. I can only remember one time I saw her tipsy. My father, on the other hand, was not a daily heavy drinker but almost all my parents fights during my childhood were about his drinking. After my mother died, his drinking increased even more, and as an adult at the time, I joined him. We were drinking buddies. I think he worried about my drinking but I remember that I quit for a couple of weeks when I was taking care of him during an illness and, when I resumed drinking again, he said, “Good.”
My parents, their friends, and all my relatives modeled for me and my siblings that alcohol was an essential part of adult life, the reward for getting through the stresses of a day and necessary for any celebration at any time ( “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.”) It is very hard to overcome that conditioning, especially when it is reinforced in advertising, movies, TV shows, etc.
Totally agree we have to unlearn first.