Alcohol at primary school discos…….

[givingupimdone]

Is this a thing these days? For parents obvs 🤣

Lots of (rubbish) loud music, loads and loads of children dancing, running around excited/having a good time.

Begs the question, why wouldn't the adults need a drink?!

Is it a parent and child event?
Our school discos are usually run by volunteers and parents don't need to stay so no alcohol involved.
For the summer and Christmas fair however there is always a bar.
Other schools locally that do quiz nights and bingo evenings also always sell alcohol. It's always a big seller!

The only parents at our school discos were members of the PTA who organised it.

My kids school has banned alcohol at events. No more mulled wine during the Xmas play 😭

Feel like we should give the PTA a break, it's hard enough to raise money without banning alcohol for puritan reasons. Surely we can trust adults to have a sensible amount

And yes, maybe it wasn't like this in the past - but previously the government would pay for stuff that is now coming out of the PTA budget (recent examples, fixing the junior toilets and a special drama teacher). Also we are required to chaperone our children to disco nights, movie nights, cultural evenings etc - when I was a child my parents never came to school events , probably they were at the pub !

I have no idea but apparently there will be alcohol licensed bar at my child’s school disco ……… I’m in utter shock!

'Utter shock' , bit of an over reaction.
There used to be a licensed bar at our primary school disco in the early 2000's.
I checked with dh to make sure i didn't have false memory.

It every much IS a night out for many parents with young children. And one that doesn’t require paying a fortune for a babysitter either.
I agree with this to be fair.

No alcohol at our primary school disco. Not a thing.

There was alcohol at pretty much every primary school event ay my dc’s school in Australia. Including ‘champagne’ in the school library on the very first day. Also, when I was teaching there there was wine in the staff room on Friday nights.

Alcohol depresses the nervous system. That means it stops your brain functioning properly. Everything is affected even by two drinks - reaction time, emotional control, senses, inhibition, judgement, memory. Forgive me for not thinking a small child’s disco is the place for that. Having a different opinion to you about the place of alcohol in society doesn’t make me need to unclench.

We’re a nation of drinkers who need to reconsider their relationship with it. It’s a drug. And the image of parents buying warm cups of gin from the primary school toilets for a disco is just sad.

No you can’t trust adults to have a sensible amount. 39% of all violent crime involves alcohol. It’s linked to half of domestic violence reports. 38% of serious sexual assault, rape, or assault by penetration cases, victims reported that the offender was under the influence of alcohol.

At my DC's school discos, parents would get sloshed on Pimms, Prosecco and craft beers, or mulled wine at the winter fair.
At my school, not a drop of alcohol has ever been served.

Thank you for ll the responses! I didn’t expect so much interest in this post, I posted in AIBU for traffic really to see if anyone could shed any light as to if this is the norm!
it’s a foundation stage only disco so the kids are only 3-6 so I guess that’s why parents stay for this one.
i never thought of it as a chance for parents to have downtime without the worry of childcare …… I do get that! I’ve not had a night out or night away from my dd in 5years since she was born! Maybe ‘shocked’ is a bit extreme, but this is my first rodeo with a little one at school and I guess I just completely didn’t expect it! I suppose I thought schools were a bit like, I dunno, hospital/Gp surgeries …… like you just wouldn’t expect drinks to be served. I’m not against it as such, though I won’t be partaking myself, and I can see that it would be a good money maker! But again never thought of that! And I hope to god I don’t see parents drinking and then driving the kids home 😱 another thought that had yet to enter my head!

But parents don't need to be hanging about at a school disco, do they? Once children get to school age, they just need transport there and back.

depends on the school, depends on times.

If they use the disco to raise funds by having a bar and parents staying on school property, why not. Sometimes it's much easier to hang around than trying to go back and forth. Discos rarely last for hours.

I'm the person on the PTA who organises our licence each year, which technically means I'm responsible for saying 'no' if someone is drunk and wants to be served. I worried about this a lot in the early days - had visions of being the most unpopular person at the school gate on Monday morning after cutting off Jake's mum's prosecco!

In reality, everyone who comes to this sort of thing (at our school at least) is far too well behaved to push it - I remember everyone being a bit 'oh I'm not sure / has anyone else had one yet' at the Xmas fair when we were trying to flog hot chocolate with a tot of Bailey's in it. The measures are small, the mark up is big (although probably not as big as the bake sale!) and it raises a lot of money.

The Headmistress of my DD's primary laid on a Pimms Bar at sports day. School funds made a packet!

Some schools insist on someone being in attendance with their kids to supervise. Mine certainly did which was just as well as the PTA would have found it difficult to muster up enough volunteers to both run the event and also supervise a load of over excited kids. Discos, fairs, Xmas stuff - it was all just advertised as a school community event with the whole family encouraged to attend rather than a drop and run. Can’t blame them really, why should teachers give up their free time to supervise kids at a disco when they’ve already been teaching them all day.

Because rich people only get "squiffy" whereas "the plebs" get "drunk".

It will also be a good way to spot the parents on benefits at the school events because Kemi Bad Enoch won't let them buy alcohol.

So 61% of violent crime doesn't involve alcohol, and 62% of sexual assaults don't involve alcohol - so surely that means that if you've had alcohol you are less likely to commit crime that if you're sober ?

I like your style 😂😂

I never said I expected teachers to give up their free time.

I merely said I wouldn't want to attend a school disco.

My dc primary school discos have been held in a venue that sells alcohol so parents do drink, it's a night out for them too.

Our school fayre held in the daytime at a weekend also sells alcohol.