The addicts cling to love to validate
I'm pretty sure EXAH clung to me in his early years of sobriety to keep sober. So my love kept him loved, kept away the anger and depression. When that failed.. Boom. Now he's hanging onto the kids for validation. I'm not a bad dad.. My drinkings in control, it was never that bad.
What happens when the kids no longer validate him.. Like me. I dread to think of what's in store for them when they get between him and his booze.