as many people have pointed out, alcoholism is progressive. when you find yourself unable to break the "habit" and parts of your life start revolving around getting your fix, that's an addiction. a regular person doesn't have to rationalize their drinking because it doesn't effect the responsibilities they have in their life. then again, there's a lot of people out there who think of themselves as "normal" who actually probably have some problems. "normal" is relative. VERY relative. congrats on realizing that alcohol is having this negative impact on your life and for wanting to do something about it. remember, you're probably going to be able to come up with a million excuses why you can drink but they're just that. excuses. you've got three big excuses not to drink that outweigh every drinking excuse out there. your wife, your child and above all you. because you cannot gain true sobriety unless you want it for yourself. lots of people want to hinge their sobriety on other people but it often doesn't work out well because relationships have factors other than sobriety that come into play. your sobriety is above all for you and how happy you will be knowing that you are doing everything you can unselfishly fulfilling your obligations to your family by not drinking. it's called pride. we lose it when we drink. we get it back when we sober up. we learn humility to keep it in check because we are powerless against alcohol. it's a cunning little beast. it only takes that one drink that we think we can handle. then we think we can handle a couple more. since we're fine after that we're down a six pack. after that we've already screwed up so let's go for broke. cunning. it knows us well. have a plan this weekend for how you're going to handle your temptations. you can make it. you're not too deep in the jaws of the beast! kiss you're wife and kiddo. they're so very lucky to have someone like you who care so much about them and himself. congrats!