You can't choose your parents...

From the What-the-heck-was-she-thinking department comes this story from Stuff:

An Opotiki policeman says he was shocked to find that a woman he had stopped for drink-driving had a baby on her lap and two other preschool children unrestrained in her car.

Acting on information received from a member of the public, police stopped the 24-year-old woman in Opotiki about 9.30am on Friday. She recorded a breath alcohol reading of 780 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath – nearly twice the legal limit, Senior Constable Doug Henry said.

She was also found to have been a disqualified driver, so her car was impounded.

Mr Henry estimated the baby was eight to nine months old.

The woman had been drinking through the night and said she had had a row with a man, he said.

In his 40 years on the job he had caught drink-drivers with unrestrained children before, but this incident had shocked him, "particularly the little baby sitting on her knee". 

We're not surprised that the policeman was shocked; every thinking person should be as well. But there is hope for the children:

Child, Youth and Family has been alerted to her case.  

Some parents simply do not deserve to have children. We know several childless couples who would give everything to be blessed with just one child. And yet we have a segment of our society that breeds with impunity, with no disruption to living the good life, drinking all night, and flouting such trifling things as drink-driving laws and disqualifications from driving. It doesn't add up.

Hopefully, intervention in this family now might be able to save the children from being plunged into a life of dysfunction. The children have done nothing wrong, and are simply victims of the accident of birth. You can't choose your parents, unfortunately.