Tony, you and your siblings really have no idea when your mom is actually starting her drinking. Seven years ago, I would have bet all the money that I have that my mom would never drink in the morning, that she would never show up to an afternoon family event drunk, never go to an airport blitzed etc. etc. She has done all of those things, more than once. When I think back even to a decade ago, my mom would often "disappear" in the guise of preparing snacks or going to the bathroom. I now realize that she was taking "nips" . I am willing to bet that most of us completely underestimate how much our alcoholics are drinking, especially since we cannot even to begin to understand the tolerance they have built up.