The number of Norwegian children suffering on holidays to sunny southern Europe because of drunken parents is on the increase. A third of adults say they drink more than three units of alcohol a day.
“We think it is serious when a six-year-old has to look after its drunken father out on the town. We have also had to rush out to a hotel room where a three-year-old had to manage alone because its mother was lying dead drunk on the sofa,” Peder Nedrelid, Norwegian seamen’s priest on Gran Canaria tells NRK.
Almost 40,000 children have had their holidays ruined by drunken parents, according to figures from global research company Synovate.
“[Parents] begin with a beer at ten o’clock in the morning and keep going throughout the day, including those with small children,” says an unsurprised Marianne MÃ¥seide, on holiday on the island.
Over one million families with children are expected to be travelling on to the south of Europe this half term.
Seamen’s priest Nedrelid believes parents should take more care than usual on holiday so their children do not get scared.
“Both the culture and language are foreign here and the familiar, safe environment is missing. It can quickly be frightening for a small child if its parents act differently as well,” he says.
Source: The Foreigner (Norway), 27/09/10
