Growing up in a home with a parent who is a drunkard is unhealthy and risky for a child. There are several alcohol-related crimes and exploitation which are being broadcasted over the news everyday, yet there are still many parents who couldn’t give up their vices for the welfare of their kids. Simply because even if they wanted to, it is not easy to do it and they couldn’t do it by their own. I know because my father was often drunk. He only stopped when he was diagnosed with diabetes which is also probably caused by too much consumption of liquor.
Although my father embraced this vice for so long, I couldn’t remember an instance that he hurt me nor my brothers. He would usually annoy us but that’s it! Once I started to get his grayed hair strands, he would easily fall to sleep. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, I could persuade him to give me his money :-p.
I know that I’m not the only one who grew up in this kind of environment here in the Philippines. But I am one of the few who never get physically abused. And though my father never hurt us, I felt so embarrassed whenever he went home drunk and could not walk straight. Since I’m the only daughter, I’m the one who always tells him to stop drinking. He would always promise but like any other promise, it was made to be broken. Then I realized that it was difficult for him to stop. So I even thought to bring him to a rehabilitation center for alcoholics like malibu treatment centers to help him leave his vice. But rehabilitation centers for alcoholics here in Philippines are very scarce if there is any and probably too expensive. So I was already happy when I noticed that his liquor consumption lessens until he finally stopped due to his illness.
It was too unfortunate that he was not able to quit drinking by himself but rather an illness forced him to stop it.
