Here's what I think is one important aspect we havent considered on this post....anonimity. I expect grownups to be able to keep my identity confidential, but how can I expect a 5 or even a 10 year old to do so? I'd sure hate to be somewhere with my mom or work partner (we work in the community) and have a fellow member's children run up and say "Hey, Miss KJ, I know you...you go to NA or AA with my Mommy!! I guess if they saw me at AA, it wouldn't be as bad for my work, but if they said NA...oh my gosh, it could cause me a big problem (I could be fired). Sometimes Iwonder if they might tell other kids in their class who's parents are going to meetings, too. That could be trouble, as some parents like me, have to keep this information from our children (my teen suffers from a mental disorder, and we need to keep the stress low for him at this time). I just have to avoid meetings with kids for now, because I'm in early recovery, I work a lot, so I don't have meeting time to spare by spending it with the children at this point in my life. Down the line when I retire, I'll be a seasoned veteran of sobriety, and I'll have time to donate one of my meetings to being the group grandma, and letting all the mommys have a break by doing babysitting for them all. I just have to get to that point. I think I would love that.
kj