This is particularly American sensibility about not drinking alcohol casually around children. It's very strange. In the UK and Europe, if a kid is having a birthday party at their house it's completely normal for the adults to be having a casual beer or wine and socialising whilst the children play, obviously not drinking to get drunk and within the legal limits for the driver.
Honestly it's just pearl clutching. The same people are probably sneaking wine at their 8 year olds little league game in the bubba 64 oz trucker travel tankard.
Given that alcohol is a hard drug with severe social and personal consequences when abused i find that sentiment a bit shortsighted. We rightfully don't accept casual consumption of cocaine or heroin around children. We shouldn't set the model that alcohol is just a casual thing to consume on any given afternoon.
Me and many friends as teenagers wen we got shitfaced in unhealthy and dangerous ways just laughed at our parents critizising us, because of how normalized their consumption was.
So between responsible consumption and casual consumption is a huge difference. Especially when there is small kids around, who might end up just drinking from the jar right in their reach.
It's strange here in the US too. I don't know anyone that has a problem with that. That kind of puritanical attitude about drinking is not the prevailing sentiment here. Sure, my friends and I aren't getting plastered at BBQ's like we did in college, but it's not like we aren't having some beers at a cookout just because half of us have kids now. It's just a vocal religious minority making a lot of noise. Don't get me wrong, this country does have a different, more uptight, relationship with alcohol than Europe, but it's not nearly as extreme as it may appear online and in media.
It does happen though. My wife's grandmother was an alcohol abolitionist. We're not talking the 1800s here, I'm not that old. She died in the 2000s. But she was super religious and was part of a temperance movement.
Anyway, once she died, the beer and wine started coming out at family gatherings and they have not turned into raucous affairs. The kids at the gatherings seem to be doing fine.
Nah, my Catholic extended family always had a jug of Carlo Rossi (garbage wine sold in gallon jugs, for those lucky enough to be unfamiliar) at every family gathering. No one was ever worried about there being kids. Evangelicals are just lame.
Also Mexicans drink around their kids during social events all the time. It's a joke in my family that the only reason adults put on parties for their kids is so they can drink with their friends.
Unwinding after a shit week with a bottle of beer or glass of wine in the evening, with the extended family over for a meal, while kids play games. Tens of millions of Americans are doing this right now.
I don’t want to live in the America where that isn’t normal. That shit is wholesome.
This is particularly American sensibility about not drinking alcohol casually around children
Shockingly this will vary by family. Some families take their kids bar hopping while they drink to excess, some drink casually and not in excess, and some are sober around their kids, and some remain sober all the time. My wife grew up hanging out in bars with her parents biker friends and their kids. She learned to watch some of them and save the good homemade wine when someone was about to topple. I grew up with parents who would have a single drink with dinner one to two times a week and would avoid getting drunk (at least that I know of).
Personally, as a parent and living in an area with a strong alcohol culture and with alcoholic family members, I drink very rarely (the alcoholic family members really kill my desire to drink), and when I do I make sure we have more than enough adults available to parent and drive if needed. I also am very much a lightweight so there is no drinking without getting noticeably giggly and sloppy. My wife feels and acts similarly but is not a lightweight and can realistically drink one drink and be visibly unaffected.
I honestly think the OP is less about the presence of alcohol around children but more just calling out a wine mom as such
I was born and raised in the states and I've never experienced this. There's usually beer or wine for the adults who want it at every gathering. The one exception is maybe baptisms but only because the reception is usually in the church hall. Maybe it's a southern thing? I've never been to the south and they do have some weirdly puritan social beliefs.
As an American, I don't know that I really see this too much. For Halloween, it's not uncommon for some houses to give those little shooters to parents. Obviously it's not good to get sloshed at a kid's birthday party, but I don't think too many people put too much weight on a drink or too. Either that, or I don't put much weight on it, because I'll have a social beer at noon on a weekday if it feels right.
My brother and others in the family will 100% get drunk around the kids. Nobody is giving kids alcohol nor drunk driving (we have family parties at the family vineyard usually so nobody is driving away)
My wife's family will 100% get drunk around their kids, and drunk drive with the kids in the car. Seeing that first hand makes us really reluctant to drink at all.
When I was a kid I always asked for a taste when my parents had a drink with the meal. It was just a sip and I never liked it and it burned (it was usually a hard spirit), but I still asked every time.
When my wife was 5 she was being sent to the still to do a taste check and see if the brandy is strong enough yet.
I'm American, but Jewish. Wine is part of sabbath dinners. Especially during religious holidays. I was drinking wine at Passover seders when I was 8 or 9.
Amazingly, am not an alcoholic at 47. I do enjoy a small glass of port in the evening though.
So many people trying to say it is normal in the US, but it is the US the one with the rule of having a paper bag to cover alcohol anywhere public. Sure at home it might also be more normal but that is already indicative of a certain point of view which I'm guessing is what OP was talking about.
but it is the US the one with the rule of having a paper bag to cover alcohol anywhere public.
No it isn't. This is a state-by-state thing. Many states don't allow you to consume alcohol in public, period. Some don't care (I think Louisiana is pretty lax regarding this if I recall?)
Was always normal in my family. Smoking and drinking indoors all day. Used to come home smelling like shit. But there were alcoholics. Good people, though.
That is the way we had birthday parties too, and they are the best. Invite the whole family not just the kid. Nobody HAS to drink, and I didn't because hosting, but it's more hospitable to have adult beverages available. Often a "fancy drinks" area for the kids too, with colorful non alcoholic drinks and garnishes for them to create their own drinks.
So, so much better than a house full of kids all the same age. Kids running around in packs, adults chilling.
I come from Germany and drinking around children is normal here, and it's legal for children to start drinking at 14 years old.
However, just because it's considered normal doesn't mean it's a good thing, alcohol gets played down way too much in our society, it's one of the most dangerous and addictive drugs on the planet
Brits often refer to them like this. It's a bit like a Californian saying "California and the USA" - it's just a perspective thing. We know we're part of the continent of Europe.
I use similar glasses, and there are better odds that there would be apple juice in that glass than white wine. If so, it could even be the kids. I understand people fear kids around glass, but if the kids around it often, they probably don't flail
Maybe. Our kids used glass practically since they could pick them up, but that’s different from setting them up for failure. No stemmed glasses and never on the floor … many adults can’t even handle those
I had people place some terrible limo mixed alcohol on a buffet table, with kids around. I had to explain to him, that it looking like something for kids, while having some 30% or so, is a very very bad idea.
Omg one time I was in line at a Subway (food) this dude started small talking about how it sucks because he's so hungry and he has to wait until he gets home to eat. I say, "why not just eat half while you drive?" he says, "what are you crazy?! You can't eat while you drive! You will crash!" and went on this tangent about not being able to eat or drink anything because you're driving.
You could also like...sit down at the subway and eat your sandwich.
A sub is a pretty difficult driving meal though, if you have any care for the cleanliness of your car. Lots of ingredients threatening to spill out of the bread at any moment.
In my state they ended up passing a distracted driving law that includes eating while driving. It's a secondary enforcement law (they can't pull you over for it).
If you run a red light while eating a hamburger, you'll get the primary fine (running the red light) plus another $100 fine for distracted driving.
Why? because for some people taking a drink or a bite of a burger will make them crash. This is especially true in urban areas with a ton of things a driver needs to be aware of and react to.
It took me way too long to realize you were talking about a restaurant and I was trying to figure out why he couldn't just eat while he was on the train rather than wait until he got to his commuter station and drove home.
Eating a sandwich and drinking a coffee while driving are dramatically different. A coffee sip takes a second, you can almost certainly keep your eyes on the road the whole time, and you can easily put it down in a cupholder, freeing your second hand. A sandwich involves 4 layers of wrapping, possible sauce drippings, and a different surface to each bite that requires you to look. I've read studies that found that actively eating is as risky as being drunk behind the wheel.
Saw someone making a sandwich once in stop-start traffic, cutting board resting against the (airbag) steering wheel and using a knife. Didn't hear about them on the news that evening so can only assume Darwin missed it.
Saw a guy eating Chinese from a takeaway carton with chopsticks while driving over a bridge once. It was mildly terrifying. Carton in one hand, chopsticks in the other.
And mustard, and arugula, and inconveniently timed salute, and, and, and, and...
Spent a similar amount of time on this shit as him destroying Libya because they actually went to not accepting the petro-dollar for their oil. As soon as he was out though, that faded away and became a call back when they were running out of other BS. Further rhetoric, communique, etc showed that was actually what they would have done, but, ya, democrat did it. 🤷♂️
Ya... Some people have weird ideas about alcohol. Read a reddit post recently about someone complaining that their friends are constantly getting drunk around their kids. After extracting more details, the friends in question were drinking a couple of cans of beer over the course of like 5 hours....
Mfer how much do you weigh that you're "getting drunk" off a couple of 5% cans of beer? Like 80 lbs? Or does OP not understand how blood alcohol levels work and they think a single drop of beer == shit faced. Smh.
The only thing weird with this photo is putting a glass of wineanything on the floor next to kids playing games. That glass will either be spilled or broken.
Yeah, this is wildly inappropriate. When I play board games with my kids, I find Old Fashioneds are the ideal way to deliver that numbing hit of booze. Wine requires too much fluid volume per unit alcohol, and the red varietals can stain your games.
ITT: people who apparently despise spending time with their kids so much, that they need to drink to enjoy it.
like WTF people...it's not an issue to have a glass of wine (or whatever) while spending time with your kids. But it's a fucking problem that you don't enjoy it without it.
Have you? Because this attitude is something I only see from people that either don't have kids or spend any significant amount of time interacting with children in their spare time.
And to answer your question, I have two kids of my own, neither of them require me to drink alcohol to enjoy their company.
Wine is acceptable, but only after you punched them, disavowed their identity, intentionally withheld education from them, made them carry their teenage pregnancy to term and ruined the planet for them. Then you can have wine. Be more republican!
The same kind of person who shares this as if it's some sort of condemnation see absolutely no problem sitting on the couch, pounding down 15 beers a night, and scream at their wife and kids
Me and the mom killed a pony keg because no one else had the balls too.
I'm about that friend's age now..... man, she went hard. Gonna miss her. I couldn't keep up now.
Edit: She's alive and well, married with a gaggle of kids, we grew apart. Just miss those late summer nights where the only place we had to be was a shit retail job, and we could get stoned for that.
Playing with children can be pretty exhausting. My daughter loved her Lego pirate ship set and had me narrating the lives of ten swashbuckling sailors on the high seas every day. I needed to be on top form or she would catch my day to day continuity errors 😅