My mom wants me to buy her a beer. I told her it's probably not a good idea. My mom used to be an alcoholic about 25 years ago. And she quit. I used to get her Near-Beers and that would suffice. But now she's been talking about having a beer because she sees that I sometimes buy wine for myself. My mom is on a lot of medications.. high blood pressure and diabetic medicines. She said she just wants to taste it. What should I do?
Being diabetic and drinking is pretty dangerous and I wouldn't risk it, unless she is already close to death.
Plus alcohol and heart meds don't really go well together.
By all means, ask her doctor, but if he knows she's an alcoholic he isn't going to give his blessing. Of course, you can always make him the "bad guy" if she's becoming insistent on having a drink.
By saying we should not drink in front of alcoholics we are saying that we are some how responsible for their sobriety. We are not, it is their responsibility.
Now in this case, Mum need someone to purchase the alcohol for her. This is different, this is facilitating the drinking and I disagree with that.
It only takes one beer to get an alcoholic hooked again. I make mini mince pies and use mincemeat with rum. My neighbor loved them. He was an recovering alchoholic and told me he couldn't eat them anymore because even the taste of rum (alcohol cooks off) could ruin his sobriety. So I used plain mincemeat for his pies.
Don't drink in front of your mother, that is mean. It genuinely will do you no harm not to buy wine for yourself when she is around. It wouldn't, scientifically speaking, do you any harm not to keep wine in the house, come to that - but only you know where your lines are and I wouldn't dream of getting snotty about it.
Find your mother something stimulating to do, watch, listen to, drink, eat, or whatever that has zip to do with alcohol, to help alleviate the boredom and craving. Remind her that SHE has chosen not to drink, and you will not undermine that choice.