shocked at how desperately sad soe peoples lives must be to drink on the streets, during the day......

[psychomum5]

the DDs are in their dance show next week, and so need some bits and pieces for costumes etc.

I took them to the closest high street, which is fairly well known for being a tad deprived, but I normally go during the school day and so don;t see a lot of it.

tonight I took them after school, and the difference is so sad.

people sat on benches swigging 'white lightening'.

parents walkign down the street, pushing a buggy each with toddler in one, baby in other, three older children in school clothes, cussing and yelling at each other, swigging cans of special brew.

maybe I have been very naive not to have seen desperation like this

or blind to it.

I truly am shocked!

and saddened

I know what you mean, I work in a welfare programme helping people who are the products of such parenting to break the cycle and get in to work and helping others in society.
Its so hard not to turn to drink and crime when your mother shoved you along in a buggy drinking cider.

I didn't know my mum was out today

its like that daily round here, we veven have a 'drunks bench' that always has flowers by it in winter as loads of homeless people have died on it

Yanbu. It is very sad particularly when you see the cycle being continued.

their lives are sad and they are alcoholics. Never can be sure which came first.

IME there are people living similarly desperate addicted lives who are not 'street drinker' types...

The Housewife, the City banker, the music producer...

It truly affects all walks of life and I agree, it is very sad

erm.....

parents walkihg down the street, pushing a buggy each with toddler in one, baby in other......

So, what is so bad about this? Are you saying parents who have a baby AND a toddler is somehow sad?
That they are out for a walk, albeit in a deprived area instead of sitting at home watching tv.....

Sorry, but the bit about parents with children got to me - what is wrong with this?

The cans of special brew are key, sleep

justneedmoresleep - maybe the fact that whilst caring for their children they were also swigging from cans of special brew?????

Tis very sad Psycho I agree

justneedsomesleep, it was not the fact of them being our, it was them being with the cans of speacial brew in their hands while out with the children, cussing and yelling.

I was describing what I saw, not judging them on it

I feel sad that this is how some people spend their time.

((aware that that might sound judgemental))

riven, that bad near you then too??

It's bad everywhere

You don't need to be swigging Special Brew on a park bench to be crippled by alcoholism

notnowbernard, I do know that, but somehow have missed seeing it (IYGWIM).

maybe it was being out at a different time of day, with my children noticing and commenting, that made me see it for the first time, or maybe is it the credit crisis that has made people more deperate and so more obvious, I will never know.

all I do know is that I am really shocked, really sad, and in fact, feel very privilaged(SP?) that their lives are not mine.

I think the Brown Paper Bag Brigade are the physical evidence of addiction in our society

But for every street drinker there is a housewife who can't leave the house without Valium, a student who can't stop her binge-drinking and subsequent high risk-taking behaviour, the high-flying banker close to bankruptcy because of his compulsive gambling

I have met many, many people like this. Addiction tears people apart, wrecks families, costs society millions... it's a tragic illness, even when personal circumstance stops the individual hitting physical 'rock bottom' (homelessness, for example)

I used to drive by a liquor store in the mornings on the way to work (in the state of Colorado you have to buy spirits and full-strength beer and wine in a liquor store), and there'd be a queue outside it at about twenty till 8 for 8AM shop opening.

god expat, how bad.

I like a drink, and indeed, have a glass of wine at least 5 night a week, but really, this amount.

and this comes from a woman whose parents were addicts (drug and drink).

I actually think now that I was lucky tho with my aunt, as I really have never seen this type of drinking before.

Sometimes i fancy a drink in the afternoon but have to drive to do school run and work nights so can't.....maybe i should buy myself a bench??? Do you think dh would mind?

I'd like to say it makes me sad to see these people but actually, it makes me bloody p'd off and yes, I know IABU and I should have some compassion.

But today, when I took my 6yo ds home from school and we went through our town square and there are groups of drunks yelling and drinking openly and shouting 'c*nt' at the top of their lungs, and pissing against the side of the church, I'm sorry, I didn't feel pity, just anger.

And before you tell me that I don't know what it's like being an addict, my dh was one and it wasn't nice and he's kicked the habit.

Sorry, am having a bad day and would really really like to move out of this town. (btw it is London!)

ever watched a chemist as it approaches opening time in teh morning? Small queue of people waiting for their script

It's awful and saddening to see street drinkers but I sometimes feel quite irritated and intimidated by their behaviour too like flibertygibet says.

I was totally shocked when i saw the level of street drinking in Galstonbury (apols if anyone is from there I don't mean it nastily and I mean the town not the festival), I really wasn't expecting it at all when i went as a tourist. I live in Manchester so there's obviously quite a lot of it but because of all the hustle and bustle especially in the city centre maybe you just don't notice it quite so much.

It just seems more "in your face" in smaller towns and I think that's what freaked me out, am far more sensitive to lairiness tho since having dd than I used to be.

yes riven, that's what I meant