Most parents’ night out plans I hear about have a very detailed first half. Pajamas by 7:30. One episode, not two. The good flashlight is in the drawer by the fridge. Then the plan stops at the restaurant door.
Safe transportation for parents on a night out means choosing your ride home before you leave the house, not at the end of the evening. If alcohol is part of the night, pick a sober designated driver, book a rideshare or taxi, or plan a hotel stay, and arrange the sitter’s ride home too.
I’m a little skeptical of advice that just says “be responsible.” Everyone thinks they are. The trouble is that the person deciding whether to drive at 11 p.m. is the person least qualified to decide, because they’re the one who had the drinks. So the decision has to belong to the 6 p.m. version of you.
Make the ride decision at home
Parents may spend twenty minutes explaining bedtime and forget the one decision that determines how the night ends: How are we getting home?
If alcohol is part of the evening, make the transportation decision before leaving home:
- Designated driver. Pick the person out loud, before you go. “I’ll probably just have one” doesn’t count. The driver has nothing.
- Rideshare. Open the app before you leave, save your home address and check that your payment card works. A dead phone is the classic way this plan falls apart, so bring a charger.
- Taxi. Unglamorous, and sometimes faster than an app on a busy night. Save a local cab number in your contacts.
- Hotel stay. Pricier, and it means asking the sitter to stay over or the grandparents to keep the kids. For a late wedding across town, it can be the calmest choice.
- Another sober driver. A friend who isn’t drinking, an adult sibling, a neighbor who offered. Ask before the night, not from the restaurant bathroom.
Do not rely on deciding later whether someone “feels fine.”
Feeling fine isn’t a measurement. Alcohol affects judgment and reaction time before most people feel drunk. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration explains how impairment builds and notes that driving with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher is illegal in every state.
The ride home is part of the plan, not a decision you make at 11 p.m.
Plan the sitter’s ride home, too
This is the part almost nobody mentions. If your sitter is a teenager who doesn’t drive, someone has to get them home at the end of the night, and it can’t be the parent who had three glasses of wine.
Sort it out when you book, not when you walk in the door. Ask whether one of the sitter’s parents can pick them up and agree on a time. If your designated driver is doing the drop-off, put that in the plan. Thinking about a rideshare for a teen? Check the app’s age rules and ask their parents first.
Grandparents count here too. If Grandma drove over to babysit, a late finish means she’s driving home in the dark, so think about that before you promise to be back “whenever.”
A four-line ride plan for the group chat
Here’s the version I’d actually send. Copy it, fill it in, and text it to whoever’s going out with you.
| The question | Example answer |
|---|---|
| Who’s driving home? | Sam. Sparkling water all night. |
| Backup if plans change? | Rideshare app, home address saved, phone charged |
| Who takes the sitter home? | Her dad, at 10:45 |
| What time are we leaving? | 10:30. No “one more round.” |
Writing it down makes it harder to renegotiate later, which is exactly the point.
Nights out on the Grand Strand
If you live around Myrtle Beach or Conway, a parents’ night out might mean dinner at Broadway at the Beach, a show, or drinks at The Market Common. They’re easy places to get to and easy places to lose track of time. Before you go, check whether you can leave the car parked overnight if plans change, and remember that on busy weekends a ride can take longer to show up.
October makes this more relevant, not less. It’s grown-up Halloween party season, and Play.Party.Plan’s round-up of October holidays is a reminder of how many excuses there are to go out. Every one of those parties ends with a drive home. For hosting ideas closer to home, our Parties section has you covered.
If someone is charged with DUI
Everything above is about prevention, and prevention is the whole point. If someone is actually charged with DUI in Horry County, however, the issue has moved beyond family-night planning and into a legal matter. Johnny Gardner Law currently focuses on DUI defense across Horry County, so someone needing case-specific guidance could independently consult a Grand Strand DUI lawyer.
Pixieandpop doesn’t give legal advice, and this article isn’t a substitute for talking to an attorney about a specific situation.
My honest take
Write the ride home into the sitter note, right under bedtime: “Home by 11. Sam’s driving.” If you can’t fill in the name, you don’t have a transportation plan yet, you have a hope. Fix that before you put your shoes on, then go enjoy the dinner you’ve been looking forward to for three weeks. More ideas for the grown-up side of family fun are coming to Little Moments.