Dear Eric: We are a retired couple in our late 60s. In our younger days we enjoyed an active social life that often revolved around drinking, sometimes to excess. As we’ve grown older we’ve slowed down, improved our diet and taken up a near-daily fitness regimen that has us both in pretty good shape.
My wife still drinks more than she should, as measured by my opinion and numerous online articles I’ve read. We’ve discussed it a few times and she makes an improvement for a short term but soon backslides into her habit of having four, five, sometimes six glasses of wine a night. At the same time, I’ve eliminated alcohol entirely.
I don’t nag her about it. I’m all for everyone making their own choices in life, but I know the effects of this amount of regular drinking is not healthy. I used to buy the alcohol for both of us (my cessation is fairly recent), and since I stopped she has purchased the wine on her own.
Yesterday, knowing that I will do this week’s shopping soon, she put wine on the list. I am torn between telling her I won’t enable her drinking (while expressing my hope that she can again reduce to a more reasonable level), and just keeping quiet about it. – Winding Down Dear Winding: When one partner changes, the whole system changes.
But that change is often a lot slower and more complicated than we’d like it to be. Let’s put aside, for just a moment, the facts and figures around alcohol consumption. In your marriage right now, you and your w.
