Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying that her decision wasn't a mistake!  Making a bad decision isn't a mistake: it's a conscious, willful and deliberate selection. It's a choice. It was a bad choice, it was a selfish choice, it was a stupid choice, but it could never be called a "mistake". Which part do people think is the "mistake"?  That she didn't mean to drink while on probation for a prior DUI?  Was it an accident to get behind the wheel when she meant to call a cab/friend/take a bus?  To rebrand our bad decisions as mistakes is to try and deflect responsibility.  It never works. I've done many stupid things in my long life, but not once did it ever cross my mind that they were mistakes because I MADE THE CHOICES - NO EXCUSES.