Hi, so today we're going to be talking about what to do with the kids if our

partner is drinking or using drugs. If you do not have children, this might be a

perfect week for you to go back through the archives of podcasts.

I have been doing this for close to a decade, so there are quite a few to choose from.

I was doing this before anyone knew what podcasts were so please feel free to go through

the library and take a listen to something that rings true for you this week.

So knowing what to do when our loved ones starts drinking or using drugs

around the children can be really difficult. Here's one helpful tip, okay? We don't need to stick around when they're making bad choices.

We can ask them to leave the house.

Now, they might refuse, or maybe they're too drunk or too high or

too messed up so that's when we can pick up our keys, grab the kids and head right out the door. Now over the years when I've made this

suggestion I have had some women say to me, Michelle it's not that easy.

What if they decide to follow me? What if the kids are busy and

they don't want to leave the house? And here's the loving but hard truth because

I love doing this but if I'm going to do this with integrity I'm going to have to say things that challenge maybe sometimes what we think is acceptable and unacceptable behavior with, and I call those loving truths. They're a little prickly to hear. You're probably going to resist or get defensive when you hear them and I know I would if when someone was

you know making these suggestions to me but it's important that someone speaks the truth to you, whether you choose to like want to observe that or not.

And if you don't want to and you want to say Michelle, you're wrong, I understand that and I respect that too.

There is a very good possibility that is correct.

So you trust your gut, you trust yourself because you are the wisest person for your situation.

But here's a loving truth I want to say.

Sometimes this disease requires us to do things that are not easy.

Now I had three young kids when I was married to my partner who struggles with addiction.

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