Sober Mother

WHEN I CRAWLED through the doors of AA four years ago, looking like something the cat dragged in, my children were six and seven. They were in good health physically, but the negative life with an alcoholic mother, a mother they could not rely on, had begun to show up in their mental health. They were whiners--nervous and demanding. They were overactive and underloved. When I couldn't cope, I used to shunt them off to my mother or my ex-husband, and they were so busy coming and going, they didn't know where they lived or who was boss.