Mum who downed almost a bottle of vino a night warns ‘wine o’clock’ is creating generation of boozy parents… and it nearly ruined her health
Lauren Derrett's drinking problem spiralled out of control after she started abiding by 'wine o'clock'
WINE o'clock is universally seen as the time for kicking back and relaxing after a hard day's work.
But one mother-of-four, who used to down a almost bottle of wine a night and lost days to hangovers, has warned that 'wine o'clock' is creating a generation of boozy parents.
Lauren Derrett is a 44-year-old full-time mum, author, and motivational speaker from Essex.
Like many parents, she found herself popping open a bottle of wine as a way of relaxing after the birth of her third child in 2004.
Yet she quickly found that her one daily glass turned into a bottle a night as she started consuming "an unhealthy amount a day" and averaged almost a bottle of wine a night.
Despite this, Lauren was able to hide behind other mothers' fondness for "wine o'clock" and would often post pictures of herself enjoying a glass of red - never fully admitting to herself how dependent she had become on her daily alcoholic fix.
She told : "Every #winetime #wineoclock made me feel part of something and almost gave me permission to carry on.
It told me I was just behaving the way everyone else was, it meant I didn't have to question my behaviour, even though I knew what I was doing wasn't healthy."
Currently, there are over 1,200,000 images on Instagram using the "wine o'clock" hashtag.
Lauren's behaviour unsurprisingly put a strain on her marriage as her husband, who doesn't drink, became increasingly "concerned from a health perspective".
Naturally, Lauren's dangerous boozing took its toll on her liver and she remembers feeling "exhausted all the time", which meant she "had less patience with [her] family, low libido, and feelings of negativity."
While her four children had a "running joke" about their mother's drinking, Lauren found the strength to confront her problem late last year when she decided to commit to Dry January.
Now sober for 100 days, the blogger behind the female empowerment website says that she has "more patience" and "more energy" than she used to as well as a higher libido.
Now wearing bracelet with the word 'SOBER' written on it, Lauren says that "my first response to life is positive now, I'm actually enjoying life rather than mentally beating myself up every day for drinking".
Lauren says she only used to drink socially, mainly on family occasions or on nights out with friends before she had her third baby.
She says she would initially feel more relaxed when she had a drink but would then be disappointed in herself and vow to not do it again.
Lauren's cut off was two-thirds of a bottle of wine but she said the "guilt was screaming at me daily".
Alongside her recovery, Lauren has also written the book which covers the challenging topics of domestic violence, miscarriage, divorce, depression, and childlessness by choice among others.
She works as a campaigner for female empowerment and sheds light on "real women's lives" instead of what "we are fed via social media" - meaning "wine o'clock" is well and truly a thing of the past.
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