One or two mulled wines too many...get a mother into trouble with the child welfare authorities

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By Merja Ojansivu
     
      As we noted in a weekly article at the end of November, this is the season of the year known as pikkujoulu (literally "Little Christmas").
      As well as the pre-Christmas parties, it is also a time for mulled wine, referred to locally as glögi, and for families and friends to spend evenings at home quaffing the stuff while their kids are there - either sleeping or awake.
      In most cases this passes off without comment or mishap, save perhaps for a slightly thick head the next morning if things run into the early hours, but what happens if a young child in the house wakes up in the late evening complaining of acute ear-ache, and he or she must be whisked off to the health centre?
     
A mother of three from Espoo, who was spending a congenial glögi evening with neighbours, resolved the problem in the only way she believed was right.
      She rang for a taxi and rushed her 6-month infant to the health centre, calling her boyfriend at the same time to look after the other two children left at home.
      The duty staff at the health centre noticed that the mother was a bit tipsy, and they called in the social workers. The mother was breathalysed, and a week later someone from Espoo Social Services paid a visit to the woman’s home to check on the children.
     
The case was reported in last Wednesday’s edition of the Swedish-language daily Hufvudstadsbladet. For the mother in question, the intervention by the child welfare authorities came as a severe shock. She said she would have understood their stepping in if she had been out in the pub.
      "But even then, I would have taken the child to the doctor’s myself, even if I had been drinking", she commented.
      The mother regards the actions of the authorities as completely unfounded. For her, the big issue was one of getting the child to care. The worst situation would be if drunk parents would not dare to take their sick children to the clinic.
      Or should the parents of young children abstain completely from hot wines or cold beers?
     
Alcohol researcher Marja Holmila from STAKES (the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health) does not come down one way or the other on whether the social workers were guilty of over-reacting, because she says she does not know the background to the individual case.
      "If suspicions of an alcohol problem are grounded in fact, then some form of mini-intervention into the mother’s situation would be in order", she suggests.
      In Holmila’s view, the social environment these days is so permissive and so "wet", that it is easy to lose one’s bearings.
     
The use of alcohol by women of child-bearing age is increasing, and Holmila suspects that perhaps there is a blurring of the limits of what is "under control" and what is not.
      "In a sense, the mother of a young child is at work, and it is not permitted to use alcohol in the workplace. Then again, drinking in the home may seem to be a safe option."
      Holmila notes that the traditional old rule - that mothers would take a greater responsibility for the children than fathers - no longer holds good.
      "For example in France the men drink more heavily, while the women tend to remain relatively temperate and sober. We have gender equality here, even in our drinking habits, and young women drink almost as much as the men."
     
Prof. Pekka Sulkunen of the Department of Sociology at the University of Helsinki considers the opening up of the debate by the Espoo mother to be an interesting feature of the case, since there is general disapproval of smoking and drinking by expectant mothers and mothers who are still breast-feeding.
      In his view, the woman’s breath-test reading of 1.7 ppm (which would incidentally have landed her with a court appearance for aggravated DUI had she been behind the wheel of a car) is quite high, and a six-month-old child is still very small.
     
"There is a strong (and overwhelmingly negative) prevailing moral opinion on these matters. On the other hand, there is also a strong and ingrained point of view that everyone should be able to decide for themselves how they act. We are dealing here with the interface between the two, and over it floats a fairly heavy cloud of alcohol vapours", says Sulkunen.
      Professor Sulkunen, who has examined the drinking habits of the middle classes, points out that today’s Finland no longer has any truck with "nanny-state guardianship" telling us what to do, even to the point of our disregarding our own responsiblities for self-discipline.
     
"The Espoo social workers acted properly. Even if the result was undoubtedly embarrassing and mortifying, particularly when middle-class people tend to have this illusion of their own innate sense of self-control, meaning that there is no need - and hence no right - to interfere in their doings."
      The positive social mind-set towards alcohol has, in Sulkunen’s view, gone way beyond the bounds of reason, and it is time for a discussion on those bounds.
      Ritva Varamäki, the Development Manager for Substance Abuse Prevention Work at the Finnish Centre for Health Promotion, says that young women nowadays enjoy a merry "singles life" for a relatively long time up to when they have children.
      "It is easy to have a situation where this more easy-going attitude towards drinking also continues after the children have come along, which then leads to incidents like this."
      Varamäki believes the health centre staff and the social workers acted in the best interests of the children.
      "I can also understand the pique that the mother felt. The social workers have regarded the position of the children as insecure, and they have stepped in under the remit of child protection legislation."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 9.12.2004
     
     

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: Women and alcohol

Previously in HS International Edition:
  What exactly IS "Little Christmas"? (26.11.2002)

See also:
  Pikkujoulu is here again, bringing glitter, gigs, a lot of empties, and uncomfortably long lines for a taxi (30.11.2004)

MERJA OJANSIVU / Helsingin Sanomat