I voted 1-2/week but that’s more than I really drink by a longshot.
I may have 1-2 in a week maybe 10 weeks a year.
I have more like 3-7 over the Christmas week.
I may drink to the point of drunkenness 1 or 2 times per year. But not every year.
That’s me too. I hate the taste of beer, wine gives me a headache (not a hangover-- an immediate headache), and mixed drinks get me too buzzed too fast.
Albeit, sometimes on Jewish holidays, I have a little bit to cover the mitzvah, but that wasn’t a choice, and “none” comes closest to my actual habits. I had a roommate once who was in recovery, and when we were thinking of moving in, she said “Is it OK if we don’t keep alcohol in the house?” It was an easy “yes,” because I didn’t keep it in the house anyway.
I like it when events have “designated driver” wristbands, because your colas are free.
I’ve been drunk, but pretty much all in college, and all on evenings when I planned to indulge-- I have never planned to just have one, and have it get out of hand.
FTR: my parents never made alcohol mysterious or forbidden. On holidays, as a kid, I got Sprite with a tablespoon of whatever wine the adults were drinking, and after I was 13, I’d get a shot glass of champagne whenever that was served.
My brother doesn’t drink either.
It’s funny how kids perceive things. This year we had a very small Seder, and each of my kids invited a friend. The Jewish one said she was never allowed to drink wine at the Seder. (She was given grape juice.) We have always offered both wine and grape juice, because my husband is a teetotaler, but i thought the kids were allowed to drink what they wanted for the four ritual cups of wine. (We wouldn’t have given them much wine, but i thought that everyone got to choose what they wanted for each cup.)
My daughter said she wasn’t allowed to drink wine. I expressed surprise at that. My son said that HE was allowed to drink wine.
I was there. I’m pretty sure they were both allowed to drink wine. And yet, I’m sure that was my daughter’s perception.
Neither guest chose to drink wine. We went through a LOT of grape juice, though.
And there’s still half a bottle of nice Cabernet in my fridge.
I know a guy with stomach issues who ingests his alcohol via an alternate route.
Which raises other questions of interest:
How was alcohol handled in your home growing up and how did it influence how you handled it as an adult?
How did it impact how you dealt with it with your children (for those who have had kids)?
I don’t remember ever seeing my mom drink. My dad rarely. We had a stocked liquor cabinet though. But same bottles for years.
My in laws OTOH would have a drink before dinner (FIL may he rest in peace three fingers Stoli neat, MIL less rigid glass of bourbon, still at 87) and wine with.
Both my wife and I grew up to be on the occasional to rare side. If wine with dinner then kids could have a sip.
I voted 1-2 per week, but it’s closer to about 1 every 2 months or so. I have one beer or cocktail when going out to dinner for a birthday, anniversary, or holiday, but otherwise don’t drink.
I wonder if how much parents drink has less influence (putting aside genetic factors in alcoholism for the moment) than how forbidden alcohol is.
When it’s on the table, but only for the grown-ups, it’s just as likely to tempt the kids as it is in an alcohol-free house of religious fanatics who are explicit about the fact that it’s not there because it’s bad and forbidden.
When it’s there, and the kids can sample, or when it’s not there, but either not mentioned at all, or mentioned in the context that the kids can make their own decisions when they are older (what my non-smoking parents said to me about smoking, and I’ve never even tried it out), it’s probably less likely to loom large in the children’s imaginations.
My mother very rarely drank alcohol, and my father drank infrequently, and only at parties. We had a liquor cabinet in the house, but the bottles emptied very slowly, over years. Drinking was not frowned upon, but not encouraged either.
On the few times per year that Dad drank, he drank to excess, but not blackout drunk. He was a happy drunk at parties, but then, so were my parent’s friends. They threw loud, fun parties. I even found them passing around a joint on one occasion in the early 70s (shocking, but funny to me because these were depression-era, conservative people by day…party animals by night). No fights ever broke out. No bad accidents ever occurred.
I recall being embarrassed only once by Dad when he was drunk. I brought a new date home to meet my parents during a party at our house, and when we walked in the door, Dad was wearing a wig and dancing with a mop. Meet my Dad…he’s not always like this.
I was scared only once that I recall when Dad was drunk. He didn’t drive when inebriated except for one time that I know of when they ran out of ice at a party. Dad took me along for the ride to the gas station not far away. It was snowing, with ice on the roads. Dad started slipping and sliding in his ‘65 Mercury Comet, yelling weeeeee…weeeee! Luckily there were no other cars on the road. I was close to driving age, so I took control and drove us home. Dad apologized the next day.
My parents’ drinking, mostly lack of, had little influence on me. I was more influenced by friends during my college years. Like many students, I imbibed more drugs and alcohol at parties than I should have (particularly bad in pharmacy school, when it wasn’t uncommon for fellow students with parents who owned pharmacies to bring sealed, uncut 1-oz vials of cocaine HCL, and pints of Brompton cocktail to parties).
I did see a handful of pharmacy students crash and drop out due to substance abuse (mainly cocaine, this was the coked-up 70s and 80s), and one fatal OD. Med school wasn’t quite as replete with inebriates, but there was enough. I knew enough about pharmacology, pharmacognosy, and addiction to not let it get the best of me.
I lived, didn’t hurt anybody, never drove inebriated, and quit cold turkey after graduation. I now have a medical marijuana card, but toke infrequently. It helps with my peripheral neuropathy…and makes watching movies more interesting.
Both of my daughters smoke weed, but not much. They very rarely drink alcohol, and never drive when doing so (I drove that point home long ago). They are both strict vegans and live a healthier lifestyle than I do. My 6 cats are strung-out on catnip, though.
I’m 66 years old and I’ve never had an alcoholic drink.
Mother - rarely (1-2) month would have a glass of wine with or after dinner. Have champagne at New Years or other events. Seder and other religious moments. Made/makes killer eggnog for new years as well!
Father - other than celebratory events or religious ceremonies, none that I ever saw.
Step-Mother - other than the above, would rarely 3-6 times a year, would relax with a big fruity mixed drink for fun, but otherwise, minimal.
Step-Father - during my time with him (tweens until I went to college during summer / major school holidays) a barely in control drinker. 2-3 beers a weekday, more, and often harder stuff on the weekend. After I largely went my own way he apparently leaned into Walker or the like hard. Probably at or on the verge of being a full blown addict. The last time we met was at my half-brother’s wedding (14 years younger) and he was demanding the entire wedding party drink with him.
As for myself and brothers drinking habits, well you have mine above. My folks let me have sips but I never cared much for most boozes (and to this day, my taste is wine is very heavily influenced by the sweetness of Manischewitz Concord Grape), and my folks told me that if I did start drinking that I could call anytime day or night and they’d get me no questions asked. My step-father bought me (paid for with my money) a bottle of a nice dark rum that I took with me to college and probably didn’t finish in a year, even with periodic sharing.
My younger brother (the successful one) drank a good bit as a high-schooler, on at least one occasion being dropped off at home covered in puke. I cleaned up after him, and to the best of my knowledge, it was the only time it was that bad. However, I know in med school and after graduation he drank to excess, but so did everyone in his class and probably for reason. As an adult when we’ve been together, he seemed to be on the highish side of normal (2-3 drinks by the OP’s definition) in a day, although that dropped after my nephew and niece were born.
My half-brother I’ve seen drink socially, 1-2 drinks in an evening in general, and I believe that’s within his normal range.
My folks were steady, but moderate drinkers of the glass or two of inexpensive wine in the evening sort. There was always wine-in-a-box in the fridge and they kept a semi-stocked, unlocked liquor cabinet for mixed drinks for parties. They mostly didn’t drink beer. It wasn’t treated as forbidden, but also wasn’t explicitly offered to us youngsters. Just like my father’s halvah and other little treats he bought for himself, we were supposed to keep our hands off.
Me and one of my step-brothers finally got adventurous one day when we were both sophomores in HS. He got moderately drunk, but soon switched to enabling me with various “concoctions” of his own devising. I got massively drunk - mostly on Gordon’s gin, but also brandy, white wine and a couple of alcoholic mixers. With consequences, including a damaged light shade, a great deal of projectile vomiting in the living room and a rather shaky next morning. My amused parents took pity on me, as the lesson had already been self-taught and punishment self-inflicted. I’ve never touched gin since 
.
Other than the gin aversion (that smell), I’ve had a pretty healthy relationship with booze since then. I do have to pace myself at parties. It takes awhile for alcohol to start hitting me, so if I’m not careful I can unconsciously just keep downing beers until I’m suddenly drunker than I wanted to be.
My parents drank a fair amount of wine, but they liked it dry and none of the kids thought it tasted good. There was never prohibition against it for children but it wasn’t offered either. It was a glass at dinner mainly, but later my mother was drinking more. She was a quiet drinker and it was rarely noticeable.
In high school I went to parties where there was a lot of alcohol, and I got soused a few times but I never remembered those experiences with any pleasure. Dope, even more so. I never liked being stoned. It made me paranoid and weird. I’m basically a social imbiber – I’ll take a glass if offered, and if I’m wandering about I’ll probably put it down and forget it somewhere. Every once in a long while I’ll get the urge to drink a glass of wine after dinner, so I do. Then it’ll be another very long time.
I think I read that for alcoholics and people with those tendencies, alcohol feels very different than it does for others.
If you don’t mind me asking, religious, moral, health, cost, or other reasons?
Dad was a very highly functional alcoholic and workaholic. However I was 8 when the divorce happened and only saw him on some weekends and a week long vacation most years for the most part when I was a kid. I wasn’t even aware of his heavy drinking until I was in my 30s. So while he was a influential bad example in many respects, that wasn’t one of them.
Mom is like me. She never really cared for alcohol. So I am influenced by her in this respect but only genetically.
My sister likes booze and drinks fairly regularly but responsibly, mostly wine and Tito’s from what I understand.
I like whiskey on the rocks, because I drink it real slow. Ten years ago I started measuring my pours with a gram weight scale, and it was startling how much longer a bottle lasted.
44g of whiskey is almost nothing in an old fashioned glass. Less than a finger, really. People who don’t measure spirits are drinking a lot more than they think.
It’s even worse if they stick their finger in vertically to measure the depth. Shorter than a finger? Good to go! 
Probably true, but it really doesn’t matter if you drink for the requisite buzz. I’m like the guy in the New Yorker cartoon who says “I like to keep the coffee buzz going until it’s time for the martini buzz”. I don’t drink to get drunk, but gotta have the buzz! 
I’m currently having a Caesar made with a premix that contains 5% alcohol. I only drink half a can at a time but add a generous amount of vodka to it. In total it’s probably equivalent to at least two drinks, but the only difference between a Caesar Wolfpup-style and a regular one is that I have one of the former instead of two of the latter. I also prefer the taste of the stronger drink – Swedish Absolut vodka is lovely, subtle stuff. The key to an excellent Caesar is proper dilution of the clamato juice with extra vodka and lots of ice!
But you’re absolutely right – someone who is trying to objectively assess their drinking should definitely be measuring with a shot glass or some other means.
I’ve never drank. Both my parents were heavy drinkers and in their final years, it had clearly taken its toll. My dad developed alcohol-related dementia in his later years and could barely handle making phone calls or writing out checks to pay the bills. He was 62 when he died. My mom had gone on disability and was basically a non-functional adult. She was unable to live on her own. She was 57 when she died.
Voted 1-2 a week, but it’s actually erratic; some weeks might be more than that, some weeks not any.
Only very rarely more than two in a day, and it would more likely be one. I got drunk accidentally a couple of times in my late teens/early 20’s, and didn’t like it. I understand the attraction of a bit of a buzz, but I don’t understand the attraction of being really drunk.
I don’t think drinking the way I do is a problem. I don’t think a drink or two most days is a problem, either, for most people. I think getting really drunk is usually a problem, though there may be exceptions for some people if not done at all often. I think being unable to function well if one doesn’t get a drink is a problem, even if the amount drunk isn’t much. Some people of course shouldn’t drink at all, whether for their health, or because it makes them mean, or because they can’t stop.
My parents sometimes had wine at dinner, and I could have half a glass by my early teens, but I didn’t much like it at the time, though I like some wines now; and I never got a taste for my mother’s Scotch, which she would have one shot of some days – I don’t think I’d have been allowed more than a taste until my late teens, but just enough to taste wasn’t forbidden. When they gave parties, there would be drinks offered to adults from a liquor cabinet. I don’t remember anybody ever getting drunk; people would have a glass or two of wine with dinner, and then maybe a drink or two after dinner, and anybody who declined just got offered nonalcoholic stuff to drink instead.
– I usually read whole threads before commenting; but I didn’t this time. Might do so later.
Same Wolf. And it ain’t a pretty history.