I know you have received so many replies re: children with an alcoholic but I'm going to chime in.
I was married to my ex for 14 years. I knew there were problems with drinking in the beginning but was nowhere near the place of understanding/accepting alcoholism. We wanted children and we struggled with infertility for years. I often cried at the thought that I might never have children. Well, we did have children and fast forward 8 years...I now cry about the fact that I chose to have children with this man (TWICE!). I will NEVER be free of him, his decisions and his behaviors and neither will our kids. I will always have to try to guide my children through the frustrations and disappointments as best as I can. I will always have to wonder what they see and what they do when they are with him. I will always wonder what their lives could have been like if I had been more aware of what it meant to bring children into an alcoholic's world...if I had insisted (to myself) that I have a healthier relationship before having children.
Things look very different from the parent side than they do from the wanting-to-be-a-parent side. I don't say this to be insulting but to be very honest. The irony is that when we WANT a child, it comes from a very selfish place. When we have children, there is no room for selfishness. The pain we feel for ourselves pales in comparison to what we feel for our children. Think of the pain you feel as a direct result of the lies, drunkenness and chaos of having an alcoholic husband. Would you want your babies feeling that pain??? Just two weeks ago, my oldest hung up on his dad, sobbing. His dad had made yet another promise that he didn't keep...using the excuse that he had to work late (again). It was a lie. I knew it. My son knew it. There was nothing I could do but hold my little man and tell him how much it stinks that his dad does that, that I love him and that I'm sorry.
Would I give up my children? No way. If I could go back to a time before they were born and do it differently...absolutely. Absolutely. *I* made the very bad choice to have children with an alcoholic. *They* will have to deal with the consequences of that choice for the rest of their lives.
It stinks.