DEAR ABBY: Last Friday night, my 14-year-old daughter, "Amy," baby-sat for one of her regular customers. When she got home around midnight, she was visibly shaken. "Jane," the mother of the child Amy was watching, was drunk when she drove my daughter home. The drive, which should have taken 10 minutes, had taken 45 minutes because Jane kept swerving and making wrong turns that took her away from where she was supposed to be going.
I instructed my daughter to refuse to ride with any parent who had been drinking. She is to call me to come get her when she suspects a parent isn't sober.
Abby, I remember encountering that problem as a girl. It's not easy for a teen to know when an adult has been drinking and to refuse to get in the car.
Adults should be responsible enough not to take a child's life into their hands. Unfortunately, when people have been drinking, their judgment is impaired, so parents should insist that when in doubt, their children call home for a ride. -- WORRIED MOTHER IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR WORRIED MOTHER: Every parent should insist that their children refuse to ride with anyone who has been drinking. And that goes for adults, too. While it may anger the driver, better an angry driver than a serious -- or fatal -- accident.