I've seen alot of stories where the drunk parent is viewed as the good parent by children, for many reasons. Primarily because the sober parent was obsessed with the drunk's behavior, and they had become irritable and unreasonable without knowing it, and inadvertantly taken it out on the child. For instance, when all the kids see is the wife yelling at the drunk husband and they aren't aware of/are too young to understand his wrongdoings, all they see is angry mommy all the time. Not at all insinuating that this is your situation, just an example.
I don't have kids, but I do know how easily some of them can read situations, and determine how to make them work to their advantage. I also know that when situations make them uneasy or insecure, they revert back to a needy, whiny stage. In my years of training dogs, i've discovered the animals act the same way. They don't know exactly what's wrong, or different, but they feel a different energy, and act accordingly.
As an ACOA myself, I know that I was affected constantly by good times and bad at home, and those experiences have stuck with me. I may not remember all instances specifically, but I know that each and every one of them helped me become the person I became. And I have a lot of work to do in order to become the person I want to be, instead of the person that living with the disease made me.
Some children never see through the bs of the drunk parent, and actually become drunk parents themselves. You just never know.