Being a mother is the world’s hardest, most important, most rewarding job. For some, a glass of wine makes the task a bit easier.
Before you speed-dial Child Protective Services or Tweet up an angry flash mob, no one promotes moms parenting drunk. No one.
That established, there is a notion that sipping a little wine may be a better solution for mommy coping than popping Prozac or screaming at the kids until neighbors call police.
Wine has played this ameliorating role for mellennia, and today it’s a 21st century meme.
Best-selling books: Naptime Is the New Happy Hour and Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay.
Wines: MommyJuice Wine bottles a nine-grape red blend and a chardonnay. Mommy’s Time Out Wine makes a pinot grigio white blend and a primitivo red. All cost less than $10. At 13.5 percent alcohol or less, none will leave mommy blotto after a glass, but they can take edges off a rough little darling day.
Social media: Facebook group “Moms Who Need Wine” enjoys more than 650,000 likes; “OMG I So Need a Glass of Wine or I’m Gonna Sell My Kids” has more than 135,000 likes.
Mass market mags: Joel Stein writes about “mother’s liquid helper” in Time Magazine.
Bottom line: Kids play together while mommies share a baguette and cheese paired with a nicely chilled, lightly oaked chardonnay or a nose-tickling moscato d’Asti. Not end of civilization as we know it. In fact, as old as civilization as we know it.
Happy Mother’s Day, moms everywhere.
Tasting notes:
• Mirassou Chardonnay California 2010. Vigorous nose; apple, peach, apricot, bit of banana; full, clean, easy drinker at very fair price. $10
• Beviamo Sparkling Moscato. Strawberry, tangerine, honey, big sweet; flirts with Champagne style; really nice ruby bottle mom will love. $14
• Gloria Ferrer Royal Cuvée Brut. Peaches and toast nose, apples and pears on the palate; bubbly fit for a queen. $30
Last round: Buy your mother a bottle of wine for Mother’s Day. After all, you are one of the reasons she drinks.