I gave up drinking five years ago and have been open and honest about my previous struggles with alcohol. My father-in-law insists on presenting me with a bottle of wine at Christmas (my only present from him). How should I deal with this? I feel annoyed and angry with him but haven’t spoken out.
Eleanor says: Sometimes when you tell people you don’t drink, there’s an expectation that you only semi-seriously mean it – as though it’s a half-hearted diet and you’ll give it up if you get enough nudges to the ribs. Alcohol is such a fixture of social life that people frequently just will not allow the possibility of its absence.
