to insist that DH tells FIL no more alcohol as he's driving

[posieparker]

I loathe my ILs, this is well documented!, and FIL and I barely speak. However, he drinks and drives and I feel compelled to make shitty comments which leads to a horrid atmosphere.

All I want DH to do, when FIL requests another beer/glass of wine, is to say 'No Dad, you're driving'. If he gets moody I couldn't give a crap, tbh. I hate drink drivers.

He's on his second can of Stella which is 2.2 units.

I always heard the body metabolised one unit of alcohol an hour? So a one hour gap means nothing really.

That is a problem - both wine and beer are much, much stronger now than even teh years ago. It used to be that Stella was seen as a really strong beer, now it is difficult to buy anything in a pub that's under 5%. And some wines are 14% rather than the 9-10% that calculations used to be based on.

The can or bottle should show the total units, though. But while I think the limit is three units, I would NOT be in a state to drive after drinking that, whereas my FIL, who drinks heavily, is relatively unaffected by that amount.

get one of these - then get fil to blow into it before he leave

Simple if he then wants to drive make a telephone call, dont need to get your dh to deal with it either as fil can't argue till he is blue inthe face with the evidence or the boys in blue

The limit is 2 isn't it?

Posie,

Assuming your FIL is at least 10 stone and had no more than 1.5 500 ml cans of stella (5.5% - maybe less) then if he drank that and then waited one hour he would probably be under the limit at that point. You can check here:

blood alcohol calculator

rate of metabolism of alcohol

Of course it depends on whether you feel people should not drink at all if they are driving or whether you think it is ok as long as they are below the legal limit.

My DH believes in being under the limit (he is Australian and people there are taught to calculate their blood alcohol level rather than a 0 blood alcohol approach). I prefer to drink nothing at all if I am driving. This does present some difficulties for us at times so, don't get me wrong, I do understand your position.

If your FIL is below the legal limit then it is really his choice (and the choice of others as to whether to choose to get in the car with him) as he is being responsible as defined by the law.

If he is over the limit then that is clearly a different matter.

Kat - The legal limit is 80mg alcohol per 100ml blood (0.08%)

pp- how long ago was the exam? Drinks are all stronger now- wine, lager etc have a much higher alcohol content than they did 30 years ago.