My old sponsor used to tell me that my kids were a good gauge of where I was at in my recovery, and he was right.
When I was off-kilter and didn't have a good conscious contact with my higher power, they were bananas, hyper, almost uncontrollable.
As I look back, I also see where I exposed them to unhealthy people, and again, the same reaction.
Kids absorb all the ugly negative emotions floating around in their environment.
Just my own personal experience.