Recently MADD created a blog -
The Power of Parents.
The Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving kicked off in November 2006 with the goal of eliminating drunk driving permanently. The Campaign has four essential elements:
- Mandatory ignition interlocks for ALL convicted drunk drivers
- Increased law enforcement efforts including crackdowns during holiday weekends, sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols
- Advanced vehicle technology that would make it impossible for a drunk person to start a vehicle
- Public support – led by you and other concerned citizens nationwide
All the talk about making the right choices - that has to start with the parents. Children are not able to make choices by themselves any more than we could at that age. (I agree times have changed, so don't just sit back and call me a fuddy duddy...trust me.) If we made our own decisions, we'd have ice cream for breakfast, hot dogs for lunch, and cookies for dinner EVERY. NIGHT... And clogged arteries and no jobs...or we'd all be superheroes and nurses and veterinarians.
My kids recently participated in
Red Ribbon Week this month. They need these talks - in school and out. And they need to know they can come to me (or you) with any questions or concerns they might have. Yes, you start young. I did. I don't know why a lot of people avoid the "taboo" subjects such as the proper names for body parts, the functions of body parts, what happens when you do something wrong, like drink (not only do you feel like crap, you also break laws, potentially killing people, AND you have to suffer the wrath of your mother!)
Seriously though, I know far too many alcoholics, and one of them lives in my own house. That story comes later.
So here is our story from about three years ago. (I'm happy to say he has since stopped drinking - after a few more slip ups - and realizes now that he had to choose between his family and alcohol.)
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Such has how livid I am in regard to TJ's behavior tonight at Kasia's TKD banquet.
What kind of jackass drinks (after we agree to stop for the evening), lies about it, and then gets behind the wheel with his two young children with him?
As it turns out, he spent about $60 at the cash bar! I had no idea he even had that much on him. (Now I know when he went out to "charge up the truck" earlier today that he went to the ATM. I wonder where his bank card is now. It certainly isn't in his wallet.)
Luckily I noticed something was up about two blocks out of the parking lot. He couldn't keep it between the lines, and then he started to speak. Everything he said was slurred so badly that I thought perhaps he was having a stroke. He still claimed he was fine to drive!
The kids are pretty shaken up - especially Bug. She was literally screaming in fear when she saw how he was driving even a few blocks out of the parking lot. They begged him to pull over. He claimed he was "fine." I forced him to let me drive when I heard him slurring. (He didn't say anything before that.) I thought he was having a stroke at one point it was so bad. Had I had one inkling he had had that much to drink I NEVER would've let him get in the driver's seat.
Kasia told her dad that she doesn't want him at the banquet next year at all. I can't say I blame her. Other people had come up to me throughout the evening (after we had hit our "stop drinking" point) and asked if I was the designated driver tonight. It should have dawned on me then that they saw something I didn't. (I wasn't with him for a good part of the evening. Now I know where he went and why. And now I know why he was making such an ass of himself on the dance floor.)
I guarantee you he won't remember some of what happened tonight, like him grabbing someone else's girlfriend, the look of horror on her face, his acting like he knew a dance and knocking over a few people, and not being able to stand up at the end of the night, along with slurring his words and bobbing his head, trying to explain it all away.
The girls are pretty mad at their dad, and scared. And I promise them this - it will NOT happen again...EVER. Over my dead body.
I'M not just mad..I'm LIVID. I told him that it would take killing someone with his drunk driving for him to realize that he needed to stop...and quite possibly that it would be his children that he killed. (For months they wouldn't get into a car with him driving, even if they knew he was sober.)
Thanks MomCentral for raising awareness with MADD.
*Disclaimer: “I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by
Mom Central on behalf of
MADD. A donation was made to
MADD in my name to thank me for taking the time to participate.”