Feed Your Kids, Not Your Addiction

The title of this installment of Momma To Momma may sound a little harsh but--well, it's supposed to.  Since I began my teaching career in the late 1980s, I have come across buckets of children with practicing alcoholic or drug-addicted parents.  There is no excuse.  I attended a parent conference--at a middle school in Baltimore--in which the child's mother was so drunk she fell out of her chair.  Another boy slept in a urine-drenched bed with several of his brothers and paid the electric bill on his own at twelve--his mother was a heroin addict.  A student in NJ visited my house and I refused to allow him to go home with his step-father; he smelled like a brewery.  A lot of my old friends didn't give up their wild ways when they had children--some have not even survived their children's childhoods.  Either way, their behaviors, left unchecked, do not just affect their children, but their grandchildren and great-grandchildren...and so on.

When we become grown-ups, we are supposed to put away childish behavior.  Look around you:  is your life unmanageable because of drug or alcohol use?  Are your children eating warm meals at the right time of day?  Do you stay in bed while they get themselves ready for school?  Do you ever leave your children unattended so you can party?  Do you want to stop but have absolutely no idea how?

Currently, at the Romney Goodwill next to Food Lion, there are three or four copies of Alcoholics Anonymous (affectionately known within the rooms of AA as the "Big Book").  If you decide to purchase a copy of this book, tell them you read about it on this blog and the nice Goodwill ladies will not charge you.  (I've got it covered.)  If your world looks hopeless because of addiction, do something.  There is hope.  Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are great programs filled with like-minded people who will love and support you as you work to stay clean one day at a time.  I am not writing this to condemn anyone, but to offer hope.  Be blessed!