Does your family have a secret? Mine has loads! But the biggest one isn't even a secret, just one of those things we never talk about. My stepdad has a drink problem. Unfortunately I've just moved in with him and my mum and have just started work somewhere that I can't walk to so I have to relie on him for lifts occasionally. Sometimes I sit at work wondering how pissed he'll be when he comes to pick me up and how erratic his driving will be. It's not just mine and his life he risks but my mum and boyfriends. If anything ever happenned to them I would never forgive him. I'm desperate to pass my test and I would try if it weren't for the fact I can't afford it right now.
Don't get me wrong my stepdad is a nice person, its just he has a lot of problems. He left his wife to be with my mum twelve years ago. Even now his children won't speak to him. He has a granchild he's never met and a son who keeps arranging meetings and then not turning up. Me, my sister and brother didn't exactly welcome him with open arms into our family. I hated him for years. He was the reason my mum didn't stay with my dad and why I had such a crappy childhood. Years ago I would watch him sneak off to the shed when the arguments started and I wouldn't care if he would drink himself into obvillion.
It's only over the last couple of years that I've grown up and softened towards him. Seeing how much he loves my mum and how much she loves him. He's always been very nice to me and my boyfriend and would do a favour for anyone.
I thought things were finally going to change over a year ago when he fell down the stairs when drunk. He broke several ribs and for a while things were touch and go whether he would live. You would think after spending six weeks in hospital and nearly dieing he would reassess his life and stop drinking but he didn't and soon after that he lost his job after turning up pissed.
It was only after all this that my mum finally admitted that he had a problem and that for years she choose not to see it.
Sometimes it's like looking after a child. When he's depressed we hide his money and card and search the house and shed for bottles that we pour away (he can't give up drinking altogether because it would kill him). He sees a councillor and keeps a diary of what he's drunk.
It'll take him a long time to put his troubles behind him and he'll probably never have a relationship with children. But one day I hope he'll turn back into the man my mum fell in love with and be able to live a live not dependent on alcohol.