Mum drinking at pick up

[Cybertron]

After school pick up at 3.15pm a lot of us take our kids to the local park. The kids play on the playground and we sit under benches by the trees. I chat to the mums that are there and have done for a couple of years but I am not close to any of them. Today one mum was chatting to me and she reeked of booze. She told me that she had filled her water bottle with white wine and laughed saying it was the only way to get through the day. She then continued to drink the wine. Her kids are under 10. Should I say or do something or is this ok?
AIBU: leave it she deserves to unwind
YABU: drinking like that with kids is not ok

Missing the point about driving after drinking in the park and is seemingly ‘merry’ and that is she is over the limit and her reaction time slowed down putting kids in danger

I like alcohol to unwind as much as the next but would never ever drink it during the day. Can't really pinpoint why having it at night is different...maybe because the kids are in bed and parenting is generally done for the day? I mean they're not going to hopefully break their arm and need driven to hospital etc.
I couldn't function properly during the day if i had a drink of alcohol.
Taking it in a water bottle I think very much screams functioning alcoholic. I mean the only reason she has done that as she knows it isn't acceptable to drink a bottle of wine at the park so she already knows.
I think it's worth reaching out to school for guidance. All might look well on the surface but there could be other concerns too. If SS speak to the parent it might be the motivator to make changes.
I don't judge her in the slightest. If she does have an addiction then she needs support.
My hubby's parents were like this and he spent Sundays bored at pubs with them day drinking. He hated it and would never do it now.

But she wasn't driving 🙄

If she stank of alcohol and had the wine in a water bottle then she’d clearly had a reasonable amount to drink .
If she can’t get through the day without wine she has a problem .

preschool mum I used to know was so drunk at 9am that she drove her car into the lobby of the preschool. Luckily she was running late, so nobody was in there at the time. A few months later, she drowned on her own vomit. Her child lost her mum at age 4.

The school where my daughter goes is very sociable. Likewise the mums I hang out with. I’d be more likely to worry about a mum who doesn’t reek of wine. Particularly on a Friday.

Depends if it was on a Friday!? Friday only!?

I grew up with a “functioning alcoholic” my mother drank from about 4 every night and 12 at weekends her tipple of choice was malt whiskey and red wines. Nobody reported it because we came from a “nice middle class” home! I wish they had and because I went to a fee paying school nobody there took an interest (hopefully different these days!) it was a scaring experience growing up and has led to me having issues as an adult in that I NEVER get drunk, not ever have! struggle to be around anyone intoxicated and am a bit up tight at social gatherings where alcohol is served! It’s a bit limiting to be honest because I get soo stressed and tense when I see anyone drunk or tipsy expecting the nasty comments and stuff being chucked to start any moment.I hope somebody does help this poor woman. My own mother was deeply unhappy and that was her coping mechanism.

But where talking about a person seeing another mum have a drink in the afternoon something the majority of us have done

Former teacher here: tell the school as it's a safeguarding concern. They will deal with it and keep an eye out for any problems and will be able to suggest support.

Support for what having some wine in the sun on a Friday afternoon. I had a beer today are you going to offer me support 🤣

Fucking BRAVO! 👏👏👏

This is a safeguarding concern. She may be struggling
kids may be struggling
drinking at pick up maybe the tip of the ice berg

She might have been joking. Thats definitely something I would say as a joke. Maybe she had a wine at lunchtime and it wasn’t really in her bottle. I would keep an eye rather than rushing to report her

I have a different perspective of things like this because time is kind of irrelevant to me, having a sleep phase disorder

@jen337 . thanks.
are you always so wrong? i dont drink, ive REPEATEDLY had to declare on here i had a brain injury,at one point was unlikely to walk or talk ever again.As it goes, i was alwyys ND ,really late to party with computers/typing is fairly new-my thoughts come to quickly and its apparent in y speech and typing.
im responsible for what i say NOT what you understand. im not gony not comment if i want to but if its not ok just sc4rfoll by. then i wont need to be arsey\defensive. ..did i saay.I do not drink. my punctuations shite and to be fair am not sure i even really try with that yet. will call a spade a spade tho. i'll letchu off this time cos you werent to know.
ok.
i can make a big enuf cunt of myself - dont steal my light. also i have tremor so i repetedly hit too many letters or miss a out.it seems.have a good day

@Cosycover ....as above- but eminem was slightly less insulting and i kinda laughed.

"saying it was the only way to get through the day" Could be a joke in which case nothing needed or she could be struggling and appreciate a bit of support. Schools want to work with parents and be on their side, so might want to gently offer some help if the parent wants it.

Unless you have seen neglect or harm happening to the children (or you know she drove while drunk with the children in the car) no you should not be reporting to social services. Safeguarding is increasingly being used as an excuse to create a surveillance state, which is something we should all want to guard against.

I am more shocked by the fact that she has wine in her water bottle. She doesn't seem to be embarrassed about it though.

I just think you have to be a bit desperate to take wine in a water bottle when you take your children to the park.

This is all in your opinion.

Personally I wouldn't have loved for 'safeguarding' to have intervened as a child. I'm sure many people had suspicions about my mum's alcohol intake but because we were middle class, clean and fed of course no one reported back then.

If this is the only concern then no one will do anything about it, they're too stretched to. If it's the 10th report about her drinking then there's probably a worry.

Tell school and let safeguarding lead deal with it. They will be able to do referral and there might be other info about this mum centrally.
I know of a mum that was caught drunk driving picking kids up from school. You are immediately putting your children at risk as well as potentially killing others

Really? Or are you just so desperate to be cool on here?

I'm not sure if op knows her well or
not, but if she doesn't, then she should try to find out more about her and her situation before reporting her. You can't unreport someone, so you need to be very sure before you cross that line.