Over the last four months there have been four reported cases of parents across Australia driving under the influence with kids in the car. What the hell is going on with parents in Australia?

Despite millions spent on advertising campaigns and common bloody sense, we STILL have idiot parents driving around grossly over the BAC limit with their innocent defenseless (and in one case not even born yet) kids at risk. It’s 2009 people, if you still need to be reminded that driving around pissed off your face with your kids in the car is wrong we want your parenting license back, your kids confiscated and a national apology; oh and all financial family bonus’ paid back to the taxpayers, with interest.

November 2008: a 29 year old Victorian P-plater (probationary driver) with three children in the car was booked with a BAC of 0.23. The legal BAC limit for P-plater drivers is 0.00. This happened at 4pm on a Friday, so most likely after she had picked them up from school. Now I know what you’re thinking, ‘but it’s Friday she probably just had a few to relax!’

Christ Almighty, it wasn’t even dark and she was driving around at nearly 5 times the legal limit for non-probationary drivers! AND SHE HAD HER 3 KIDS IN THE CAR! Picking up your kids is hardly a non-routine event, it’s not something that just sneaks up on you.

Some parents just don't care


‘HEYYYYYY sharraaaaa.. thish bottl’o’ wine ishh soooooo good. I think i’m going to marry it you know. oh my god rove ishh sooo dreamy-OHSHIIIIT ish that the time have to go pickup the kidsh, I like totally um forgot. talk to ya monday afta bold and the beaut orright’. Seriously, instant driving ban for life, kids confiscated at least 6 months prison so she can think about just how moronic her actions were.

December 2008: A 25 year old Melbourne mother blew 0.098. Her 23 month old baby Jayden Frazer, who was most likely unrestrained went flying into dashboard of the car when she crashed head on into another car. The Daily Telegraph reports, “The pathetic sight of her son so critically injured allegedly at her hands, will surely haunt her for the rest of this woman’s days. Oh diddums, poor widdle mother haunted from such gross child neglect? I look forward to the day they can capture traumatic experiences like this and somehow implant them into other offenders so they can feel what it’s like to be an A-grade moron.

Miraculously the toddler survived and is presumably in the care of the mother. The article does not state if the mother was charged or if she lost custody.

This month an Adelaide man was pulled up with a reading of 0.216 and two unrestrained children lying across the backseat of his car. I pity the paramedics who would have had to attend the scene if he’d had an accident. Words escape me on even trying to begin to imagine what goes through people’s heads when they drink themselves into such a state and then put their kids at such a huge risk.

I don’t in any way condone drink driving but I have less of a problem if someone drives their car into a tree at 240km/h whilst under the influence, then if they have kids in the car. Somebody gets drunk, fatally crashes and doesn’t injure anyone else is a positive news story. As soon as kids enter the car it really gets my goat, to me it’s on the same level as passive smoking or unreported domestic violence involving children.

Amber Jade Mills leaves court, upset that her cleavage had no effect on the judge

When parents get caught drink driving with kids, the natural feeling is shame and wanting to get it over with. Yes you were an idiot but you’ve accepted that, hopefully learnt your lesson and moved on. Not this woman. Despite receiving 5 months home detention as punishment, having three prior drink driving offenses and being caught a fourth time with a BAC of .226, Amber Jade Mills insists ” I am not a bad mother. I just get stressed and do stupid things.”

Sorry love, if you’re getting stressed out and doing stupid things before your baby is even born, there’s probably a good chance you’re going to get stressed out and do stupid things after it’s born too. “I know it sounds stupid but I wasn’t intending to drive,” she said. “My cousin was sober that night and was driving me home. I’d been sitting in the car for an hour waiting for her and got annoyed, so
I just drove the car 10m up to where she was and beeped the horn.”

Ok so her excuse is she apparently only drove 10 meters up the road  to get her sober cousin to drive her home. All is forgiven? I
think not. Amber accused the media of making “out like I was a big alcoholic and didn’t care about the wellbeing of my unborn child”. Furthermore she “was not “heavily pregnant” as reported at the time of the offense and had found out a week earlier she was about six weeks pregnant.”

So Amber finds out she is six weeks pregnant, and the following week goes on an alcohol rampage and is busted with 22.6% blood alcohol level after she sat in a car for an hour not drinking. The Australian government warns

“The most important consideration for women is to avoid a high blood alcohol level at any time during the pregnancy. the first weeks after conception are probably the most critical in relation to alcohol. The limited available evidence indicates that averaging less than one drink per day has no measurable impact on children’s physical and mental development.

There is clear evidence that drinking alcohol above the guideline levels during pregnancy considerably increases the risk of variety of harmful effects on the unborn child. At least four main areas of harm have been identified: foetal death, congenital malformation, growth retardation, and behavioural deficits. The most severe types of harm that are linked with high levels of drinking are gross congenital abnormalities and foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS, which includes physical abnormalities, growth retardation and neurological dysfunction with developmental delay).

Sorry Amber but the information is clear and readily accessible, you’re a dropkick of a mum. Maybe it’s not all her fault though, her own parents could have been running around with BAC’s of 20%+ during her time in the womb. Maybe Amber has some neurological dysfunction of her own.

Alarmingly the trend seems to be getting worse. The Daily Telegraph article I previously referenced claims:

“Childcare centres now have a policy to instruct staff on what to do when a parent shows up drunk. The policy has been used countless times in NSW. Childcare workers with more idea about safety and responsibility than the errant parent are encouraged to coax the drunks into alternative transport home and to leave the car behind. Drunken parents trying to collect their children to drive them home became so prevalent that centres introduced the driving policy about five years ago. “It happens a lot,” Joe Tucci from the Australian Childhood Foundation said.”

What is this coaxing nonsense? What happens if the drunk parents tell the childcare workers to just shutup and hand over their kids? Can someone tell me why if a parent rocks up drunk, the procedure is not releasing the kids and immediately phoning the police or child protection services? As long as we sweep parent drunkenness under the carpet by trying to coax them to do things instead of outright shaming them and facing them with the very real threat of a legal action we’re obviously going to continue to see a rise in cases like the four previously discussed.

If someone tried to coax me into doing something I didn’t want to do, I’d probably just tell them to bugger off. On the other hand if I knew I might lose my kids, have my name trashed by the media and wind up being dragged through the legal system, I’d probably be more inclined to take a long hard look at what I was doing and stop neglecting my kids.

The last thing this country needs is more brain dead kids running around with their pants hanging around their knees in their baggy tops and baseball caps drinking goon in local parks every night because their parents were deadbeats.


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