Dear Queenie,
Our father began drinking after our mother died and he gets drunk every day.
It wouldn’t be so bad if he just stayed home drinking, but he goes out and about driving and we’re afraid he will get into an accident and hurt himself or somebody else.
Queenie, what can we do to make him to stop drinking so much or at least stop driving when he has been drinking?—Worried children
Dear Worried children,
You cannot make him do anything. Your father must recognise that he has a problem and want to deal with it.
Contact the local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous (see Agenda, page 2 of this newspaper or www.12stepforums.net online) for advice on dealing with your father and his problem. They probably will refer you to Al-Anon, which you also can contact online at www.al-anon.alateen.org .
You also might want to alert the police when you know your father is driving drunk. Getting arrested and losing his driver’s licence would stop him from driving (if he does not just go ahead and drive without a licence) and might persuade him that he has a serious problem.
