A quarter of parents who drink alcohol on special occasions and who have young children to look after don’t think ahead to the next day, according to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll from the University of Michigan, based on responses from 1,170 parents of children age zero to nine years.
While most parents who expect to drink alcohol on a night out think ahead to plan transport home or someone to watch their children during the event, fewer consider the following day when making plans.
With the holiday party season now upon us, University of Michigan researchers have highlighted the concept of the “parenting hangover” by analysing responses of 1,170 parents of at least one child between the ages of zero and nine.
The researchers report that 8% of parents polled said they had been in a situation where they were too impaired from alcohol to fulfil their parenting responsibilities.
Plus, 29% of parents polled said that they knew of another adult who might have caused an unsafe situation for their child due to drinking alcohol on a special occasion. These parents mostly were concerned that the person was too impaired or hungover to supervise their child (61%) or to handle a possible emergency (48%).