Mother at nursery stank of alcohol... Not sure what to do.

[Bogger]

When I picked DS up from nursery today another mother was picking her child up.

When I initially saw her in the car park I noticed how red and puffy her face was. My mother had a drink problem and hers used to look similar.

She went in ahead of me and she smelt very very strongly of stale alcohol. I’ve never seen her before and know nothing about her or her child.

The nursery staff didn’t say anything to her. She got in her car and drove off and I didn’t know what to do. Should I have said something to the staff or called the drink drive hotline? Am I overreacting?

Speak to the nursery if you're worried. I'm not sure what else you can do.

You should mention this to the nursery staff. The manager preferably. They have a duty of care towards the child, obviously and will be able to contact the right agencies etc if need be. They will be able to keep a close eye on the situation too.

Worth knowing that, professionally (as a teacher) I've had experience of this twice before. Once, the parent was drunk and I couldn't let the child go with them and our safeguarding lead got involved. I won't go into more details.
The second time, it turned out the parent involved was diabetic. Diabetics can sometimes smell of 'alcohol'. It has something to do with the ketones. Anyway, that was obviously all fine.

So it could well be that, but I would definitely be mentioning it to the nursery staff.

I would mention it to nursery staff, and ring the hotline too if you see her looking like she might be over the limit to drive.

Definitely report it to nursery manager. This could be a safeguarding issue

I think you are overreacting and projecting because of your experience with your mother.

Just leave it.

The nursery staff see her every day and are under a duty of care to report any concerns they have.

Speak to your nursery’s safeguarding lead.

Speak to the nursery. They may aready have concerns. You can't ignore this.

So they will be picking up and dealing with any concerns.

You’ve just seen someone once. She might have dropped a bottle of wine by accident or something!

Really?! I think some
people are being unfair on here, youve only seen her once.

I agree what’s the - op has no proof of anything other than a smell

But she does have a history of problems in her family - which may cause her to leap to assumptions or see more than might be there

OP does not need proof. She just needs to say what she has seen and smelled. No one can ignore an adult who may be driving children in a car potentially under the influence of alcohol. They may already have concerns. They may monitor the situation.

She might work in a pub?

You don't need to smell to be an alcoholic. We had a mother at our school who was an alcoholic but you'd never have known, at least, not from a distance. The Head smelt alcohol on her breath one morrning and took her car keys off her. She was pulled over by police a week later for being three times over the limit at 9.30am having just done the school run. Shocking. I think you are right to be concerned.

I’d mention it to the safeguarding lead
In all the safeguarding training I have ever done (I do voluntary work with a number of youth/kids groups) we are encouraged to report anything we are uncomfortable with it could be the only issue you’ve seen, but it could be the 10th seperate incident reported.

I'm sure if you've noticed, at least someone amongst school staff also would have and probably already noted it before you since you've never seen her before today.

This is a serious safe guarding issue. Social services should be informed

Please raise your concerns to nursery manager.