While out for Sunday lunch with my grandfather, husband and 11 month old son, I decided to indulge in a gin and tonic.  We placed our drinks order and it soon became apparent that our waiter did not have a grip on a prompt or coordinated delivery service.    

I had also requested a fruit juice and a glass of still water to dilute the juice for my son and our drinks were arriving in dribs and drabs.  Our waiter was the sort you needed to encourage along the way.  My priority was to sort out the juice for my impatient baby, I had been provided with the juice and was still awaiting the water, and so I called the waiter over to remind him.  He said, “Yes ma’am, right away” and returned promptly with a glass with ice and lemon.  I silently lamented the fact that he had bothered with the ice and lemon when I had informed him of the intended purpose, but none the less.  On removing the elements, I poured the liquid into the awaiting bottle of juice and gave it to my baby who proceeded to syphon it out in a seamless sucking motion.

Now I turned my attention to my missing drink, and eventually was able to flag our waiter down.  On informing him that my gin and tonic had not arrived he looked at me, rather puzzled and said, “but ma’am, I put it right in front of you earlier.”  I looked down at my son, silently gulping away on a now near empty bottle, yanked it out of his mouth and a sniff test confirmed that I had in fact just provided my baby with a drink of G and T.

When I recounted the story to friends and family, most of them asked if I had been angry with the waiter and given him a piece of my mind.  The thing is though, it is my responsibility as a parent to sniff the proverbial glass of water before I give it to my child.

You see, the world is going to offer all kinds of things to my children, and many of them will look harmless, and ‘all their friends’ will have one or use one or be allowed to attend one.However, just because the world puts these things out there and they appear harmless, as a parent I need to remember it is my job to do the sniff test so that I am educated as to what my children are consuming.

So moms and dads, as we head into the festive season, let’s all give ourselves a pat on the back for making it through another year.  Like me, perhaps you won’t be winning mother or father of the year, but everybody has survived and your house is full of love and laughter.  I say let’s say cheers to that, raise your glass with me - here’s to surviving life as a parent of small children!

DISCLAIMER:  My son did not suffer any ill-effects following his G & T episode and I in no way advocate the giving of alcohol to babies or children.