Stop driving drunk with your kids in the car

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Piss off, every one of you who drives with kids in your car while you’re impaired. I can’t say what I want to say, only that your kids can’t speak for themselves, so I’ll do it for them.
You want to kill yourself? You’re more likely to injure or kill someone else. Make sure you’ve designated someone to parent your children. You’re using your kids like chips on a gambling table, which we all know, goes well until it doesn’t. The house always wins. Guess what? You’re not the house.

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Last Friday, a Wasaga Beach woman was pulled over in Beaverton around 9:30 pm. She was doing 100 km/h in an 80 zone, but “ it’s alleged the driver was…seen swerving between the centre line and the shoulder,” according to a Global news report. She had five kids in her minivan with her. 

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On 10:00 am on a Sunday morning in late July, a Sarnia-area driver felt a pressing need to run out to the shops with her two kids in tow. “An employee noted the ‘strong’ smell of alcohol on the woman as she got out of her car and she was unsteady on her feet, seemed confused, and repeated herself,” according to this report. “The woman said she had to briefly leave and the staffer, concerned about her ability to drive, offered to have the children stay there.

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But the offer was declined, so the employee called police. Officers found the vehicle nearby, going the wrong way on a one-way street. The driver pretended to give police multiple breath samples before finally failing, police said. The driver was arrested and taken to headquarters for testing, and the children were safely turned over to a family friend. That employee, that family friend, all had more consideration for those children than the person legally responsible for them. It doesn’t just take a village to raise a child; it takes a sober one.

Having kids is tiring and endless and thankless. A time when, perhaps, you might most want a drink or something to round off the rough edges of never-ending everything , is precisely the time you simply can’t. Getting behind the wheel while you’re impaired with children who cannot remove themselves from the situation is not an option. They have no agency; you are 100 per cent responsible for them. 

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Booze in particular can make people belligerent. Nobody likes to argue with a drunk. For the sake of the kids, somebody should start. It’s bad enough that adults allow other adults to get behind the wheel with a snootful, but kids have no choice. An officer I know says the most confounding thing they see at R.I.D.E. checks is when a driver is busted for blowing over, a sober passenger will say, “well, I’ll drive then.” They already knew their driver was impaired and were too dim, lazy, or scared to do the right thing. If grown-ass people can’t speak up for their own safety, how do we expect children to? 

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In June of this year in Toronto, an impaired driver crashed into a pole. The passenger was severely injured, according to reports , and there were two children in the back. Who the hell gets drunk and says, “hey, kids, let’s go for a Sunday drive?” 

One of the most jaw-dropping police stops was on a residential street in York region in June came with video from start to finish. We ran it at the time , but it’s must-see TV to try to understand what is going through the head of someone who fires up their blood alcohol content then yells, “get in the car, kids!”. The arresting officer’s exasperated response says it all:

“I asked you for your driver’s licence and you’re showing me a picture of J Cole.” J Cole is a rapper, but I was more worried about the 5-year-old in the back of the woman’s car than I was about a rapper I’d never heard of. 

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According to Statcan , alcohol consumption has changed during the pandemic. Those who don’t drink much still don’t, but many of those who do have amped it up. “ At the provincial level, Ontario had the greatest increase in reported alcohol consumption (+30%),” followed by the Prairie provinces (+27%), B.C. (+22%), Quebec (+17%) and the Atlantic provinces (+16%). 

None of this is particularly surprising. We’re living in a time of extended stress, fear, and boredom. Marriages with weak spots are coming apart at the seams. One Ontario family law firm comprising seven offices has seen a 30 per cent rise in cases since the pandemic began. Lives have been turned upside down and families are feeling the heat. You still can’t endanger your children by driving impaired and strapping them in for the ride. It’s not just their safety or the cops you need to worry about; check out this legal site to snap your head about what getting convicted could mean for your custody of those children. 

Reach out for help. Call your family doctor for a frank discussion; CAMH has services to support you and your family; check their guideline if you’re unsure; Alcoholics Anonymous is available in all parts of Ontario; you can ask for direction from your spiritual or cultural leaders; your employer may have assistance programs; therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses and nurse practitioners can all lead you to help .

And if you’re that terrified child, call the Children’s Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868