As I peruse through the aisles of Target, I see all the weird paperweights and decorations. Many of them have obscure sayings on them or are festive. But, then I see a plethora of common items such as glasses, tumblers, and shirts that are aimed for women that have some odd but catchy phrase about drinking wine. It ranges from something like "It's Wine O' Clock" to "All I do is Wine". But where did this mommy wine culture come from and how have we normalized it?
Blogger Sarah Cottrell wrote about this subject saying she would typically finish a whole bottle of wine per day. She also stated that she couldn't remember the last time she went a day without drinking. It seems that all those funny wine memes circulating Facebook and unwinding after spending a tiresome day with kids seems to have influenced this subculture radically. Cottrell writes that at some point "all the jokes about 'mommy juice' and 'wine o'clock' stopped being all that funny and relatable and started feeling awkward." She began to realize she had a serious problem and that maybe, her friends did too.
Mommy wine culture has infiltrated many daily products that women use as a subtle way to nudge them into drinking. Target now feature wine bars, women's purses have hidden pockets to hide wine spouts, and trendy travel mugs with phrases such as "This might be wine" seem adorable and not at all like a problem.
It seems that more people think wine is 'classier' drink than other alcohols. It's usually associated with the upper class in modern media and is advertised to be healthy by doctors. Red wine has been found to have certain antioxidants. However, drinking any alcohol regularly can cause damage to the liver and the brain. Imagine if you're friend told you they had a beer for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and another as a nightly drink just in a day and they say that this is what they'll do about 5 times per week. You, being a good friend, would probably be concerned and might think you're friend has an alcohol problem. So why is it any different when it's wine?
Jim LaPierre, a substance abuse counselor in Maine says that "Alcohol and caffeine are unique from all other drugs in that they are not only socially acceptable; it's expected that adults in our culture used them regularly… The illusions we around drinking include iseas like it's 'just wine.' … It's the same mindset that dictates wine is safer than hard liquor, when in truth it is the same drug in different forms."
The first step into helping mothers is for them to see that it's not quirky to drink so much wine but rather it's a serious problem with several repercussions in the future. The normalization of being buzzed all day needs to stop before someone gets hurt.
