Addicts

I strongly feel my mother is a drug addict. She's been at it for decades. Perhaps I've enabled her too long, allowing her around. Once we brought the girls home a few months ago, I kept my mom at a large arm's distance away. She has disappointed and hurt me so much in my life that I didn't want her to do that to my girls. So I severely limited her opportunities around my children. Apparently that wasn't a big enough clue for her.

I really don't know how to deal with active addicts, because they of course, don't get it. We also strongly suspect my only sister is an alcoholic. When you need to drink vodka with gatorade all day & night to survive being around relatives, well, I think you are sending a message that you need the drink to survive being you. Vodka & Gatorade? yuck.

So, this leaves three addicts in my family or origin. Those three people are my entire family of origin.

A couple years ago I had to stop speaking to my dad. He is an alcoholic and got to the point where he was hurting my children. I discussed this profusely with him, which was always met with denial & passive-aggressive behavior. Bye bye Dad. Good luck to ya. Last night I reached this point with my mother. I will not let her hurt my children. I have had to deal with this growing up. As an adult, I get a choice. Last night I asked her twice to get help. I love her and want her to be happy. I can't help her do that and I can't do it for her. She has to do it for herself and want it to happen, and take on all the work it entails.

I haven't addressed my sister's drinking problem. She has lived out of state for about 20yrs. So it leaves a niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice safe distance. However, if she hurt my children, I would say bye-bye to her as well.