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Original poster

Did something stupid

72 replies

Mommyisamonster · 21/12/2019 08:01

Works Christmas do yesterday. Realised I’d gotten a bit tipsy. Tried to arrange for alternative childcare but nobody was available. Stopped drinking and had to get in a taxi to pick up my kids from nursery. Nursery manager asked if i’d Been drinking. I was honest and said i’d Been at my work do and had tried to arrange alternative childcare and obviously wouldn’t be driving with the children. I’m absolutely mortified and scared that I’m going to look like an unfit mother! Never done anything like that before and so embarrassed at myself!

OP posts:

NerrSnerr · 21/12/2019 20:24

I was considering the taxi anyway but after going outside it was absolutely confirmed in my mind.

This is the concerning thing. That if you felt ok you might have driven. Makes me wonder how many times you've driven over the limit when you've had a 'few' drinks and felt ok.

Lulualla · 21/12/2019 20:25

Wait... so you had 4 drinks but still planned to drive and collect your children? Whilst sitting in the bar after finishing your 4th drink, you still planned to drive. And you also sound like you planned to keep drinking, and then drive. It was only went you went outside that you realised you felt drunk so decided to stop drinking and not drive. If you hadn't gone outside, you would still have been drinking... and you were planning to drive!!

People like you really are a fucking menace to everyone else on the road. One day you're going t kill someone. You've openly admitted that you only got a taxi because you felt drunk, but if you had felt find then you would have driven. Your driving would still have been impaired due to your drinking, but you would have driven anyway because you "felt fine". You're a fucking idiot.

Greenglassteacup · 21/12/2019 20:29

The nursery staff picked up on the fact that you’d been drinking so it must affected your speech/ gait/behaviour for them to ask the question. They’ll log it but unless it was a regular occurrence which it’s not, I don’t think anything would be done

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Childcare & nursery Families

JemimaPuddleCat · 21/12/2019 20:41

JemimaPuddleCat Yes I had my car. I didn’t go with the intention of over indulging. I went out to chat with colleagues who were having a quick smoke before they left to say goodbye. I’d been sat down and realised when I walked out that I’d gone a bit overboard and needed a taxi. I stopped drinking and booked a taxi.

So you were planning to drive, had four drinks, then were going to collect your child/ren?

I hope they DO raise a safeguarding concern.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 21/12/2019 20:49

@CurlyhairedAssassin the nursery had every right to question her about it.

Yes, they did. I didn’t say otherwise.

On reflection, others are pointing out that it got to drink 4 before you realised you’d had too much to drive, OP. This is, as others are saying, far too much alcohol before you’ve got to that realisation. I would be concerned that at drink 3 you would have felt ok to drive but NOT been ok.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 21/12/2019 20:54

Personally if I take my car anywhere, I either drink one drink only or nothing at all. If I have one drink then I leave it a while before I drive.

Yes, it’s commendable that you ordered a taxi when you realised you had overdone it when the fresh air hit you but it’s really quite worrying that it took 4 drinks to realise this.

It’s one thing turning up a bit tipsy at Christmas in a taxi. It’s quite another to actually drink 4 alcoholic drinks with a view to driving afterwards. Unless you come back on and say you drove there in your car, and planned to drive OR get a taxi depending on how much you ended up drinking then it DOES raise alarm bells on reflection.

Alb1 · 21/12/2019 21:04

OP you make yourself sound far worse saying you were already ‘considering’ a taxi. Drink driving is NEVER ok, even if you feel like after a couple of drinks. People with that mentality murder other people this time of year by deliberately driving illegally. And picking up your own children too so if you felt fine after the second or third drink I presume you would have driven. This is your ‘mistake’ you should be posting about

Alb1 · 21/12/2019 21:05

Just going to leave this here...

JemimaPuddleCat · 21/12/2019 21:08

Here's another one worth posting

Echobelly · 21/12/2019 21:11

TBH, I think they'll understand give you were honest with them and said it was the office party, which they've no reason not to believe. It might be a different matter if you denied it but seemed like you'd been drinking and they might worry you were downing the booze at work/home and in denial about it, but this is a one-off and you gave them a perfectly acceptable reason to have been drinking.

But yes, no one should be considering driving after more than one drink absolute tops - I'm a real lightweight and not a great driver so although I might do a short drive after having a glass of wine with dinner, I'd never drink at all before a long or unfamiliar drive, and never after more than one.

ChristmassySpice · 21/12/2019 21:14

Crikey OP. I wouldn't worry. Some of these replies are bonkers. And I'm a DBS checked ex copper.

bertiesgal · 21/12/2019 21:14

I live in Scotland so don't drink and drive at all, not even half a glass. Can't believe some people still do tbh.

I work as a GP and I never ever drink the night before I work. If someone turns up to the surgery having had a drink the previous night I can smell it. If someone turned up after 4 drinks I'd know from the smell of their breath so OP not necessarily behaving like a drunk. So nursery staff may just have smelt it on OP's breath.

My biggest issue is the idea of potentially driving after 4 drinks depending on how you feel! Just don't drink then drive at all, ever!

ChristmassySpice · 21/12/2019 21:16

Hang on. Sorry. I missed something about possibly driving.

Lunafortheloveogod · 21/12/2019 21:16

It’ll likely be noted down, but that’s more to protect kids from homes where there’s actually issues.. not a Christmas party and a flopped babysitter. Like if you magically had a party twice a week for the full of December they’d likely be able to see it as an excuse but without noting down each time it might slip through the net if it wasn’t the same staff who noticed.

Still concerned you’d taken the car and only confirmed you’d need a taxi once the air hit you.

Lulualla · 21/12/2019 21:19

@ChristmassySpice
She was planning to drive after 4 drinks. Possibly drink even more. She only stopped drinking and called a taxi because she felt drunk. If she had "felt fine" then she might not have stopped drinking and she would have driven.
Being an ex police officer, I assume you've seen cases where someone said they felt fine but were actually over the limit and dangerous

ChristmassySpice · 21/12/2019 21:42

@Lulualla Sorry. I read the OP then read again, as I thought it sounded like she had no plan to drive. Hence my second post.
I recently went to a funeral of a Mum of my DD's friend. Some of the other Mum's went on to have drinks at the wake. I didn't. I witnessed people picking their kids up pissed. Thankfully none were driving. But it didn't sit well with me. And yes, I've seen some pretty horrific stuff.

Beautiful3 · 21/12/2019 21:48

I wouldnt drink 4 alcoholic drinks before collecting my child from nursery. They probably logged it in case it happens again.

pelirocco123 · 21/12/2019 21:53

50 ish years ago when I was 8 or 9 my friend and I returned to my housr to find our mums slightly worse for wear. My mum had been given a small bottle of vodka , her friend ( my friends mum ) and her were comparing shit ( at the time ) lives and drank the vodka
I still find it hilarious now , mum kept saying her drawers ( jaws ) ached
She's nearly 88 and sat next to me as she is staying a few weeks ..
I will remind her of it

theemmadilemma · 21/12/2019 22:02

It's fucking scary you had 4 drinks and were still considering driving. You do understand the legal limit?

Lulualla · 21/12/2019 22:24

I noticed OP hasn't come back since revealing she had been planning to drive after drinking.
Clearly she didn't think there was anything wrong with drink driving if you feel fine. It's only when you actually feel tipsy that it's bad. Now she wont come back to the thread because everyone else has called her on it.

Original poster

Mommyisamonster · 22/12/2019 07:28

I don’t think it’s ok to drink drive at all hence the taxi! I don’t go out often and it was stupid I totally admit. I have never driven after a drink and the idea was only in a brief panic after my childcare fell through.

OP posts:

CurlyhairedAssassin · 22/12/2019 16:06

Realised I’d gotten a bit tipsy. Tried to arrange for alternative childcare but nobody was available. Stopped drinking and had to get in a taxi to pick up my kids from nursery.

That there is from your OP. It makes it sound like you tried to get someone to pick the kids up for you only AFTER you’d been drinking too much. Which is far too late. The decision on whether to drink any alcohol or not at something like that when you had the car should have been made only when you knew 100% that the kids were being collected by someone else.

When I read it all again it does sound a bit worrying. It sounds like your plan was absolutely to drive to pick your kids up yourself but even so you chose to have 4 drinks. 4!

It’s one thing planning in advance to have a couple of drinks and so planning all along to get a taxi to nursery to pick them up. I don’t think there is too much wrong with this at Christmas as I said further up, as long as you’re not staggering about incapable of looking after them.

But what happened to you was not that, was it? You were a driver that day, yet chose to have 4 drinks. Why on earth would you do that?

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