I've been reading a report this week about the impact that havingalcoholic parents has on children. It doesn't make happy reading;effects can include anxiety, lack of confidence and a four times higherchance of alcohol or substance misuse later in life.
My dad was always in the pub when I was little. Every afternoon andevening he'd sink a few and then either wobble or, worse, drive home. Heused to take me to work during the school holidays and afterwards I'dsit outside the pub for hours with a bag of crisps and some fizzy popand a promise not to tell mum.
You just didn't take children into pubs in those days, so there would bea little gang of us getting bored and restless, and every so often ahead would pop out of the pub door to check we were okay. And you knewbetter than to complain, especially as the afternoon wore on. You werelikely to get a slap, and there was always a row when you got home. Ihated it.
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