To all of you who think you are protecting your young children...
...or who think they are too young to be affected by your spouse/partner's drinking--
Right now my twenty year old daughter is locked in her room at her house, with her boyfriend I never would have picked, cutting herself, and ranting incoherently about how ****** up "people" are, and how she wishes she could be alone.
She seeks broken people, surrounds herself with them, because that's the only thing she's known since she was four-- her mother's drinking and my codependency, and all the ******** that surrounded it. She doesn't think she deserves good things, good jobs, or good people, and won't seek help for her own issues.
MY LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH. NOT EVEN CLOSE.
There is only one way you can protect them-- remove them from the influence of the alcoholic and seek treatment for your issues/codependency/whatever is keeping you with the alcoholic/addict through counseling, psychiatry, self-help books, Alanon, AA, or other programs. Inaction is just exposing them to the worst.
Denial is not enough, love is not enough, promises are not enough, nothing is enough but removing them from the alcoholic and learning, as quickly as you ******* can, how to be a healthy parent.
Merry ******* Christmas.
Cyranoak