Sorry if this is the wrong place, or if this is a little long!
My dad was always a heavy drinker, it kind of came with the profession that he worked in when he was younger. Big nights out etc. He just woke up one day and decided he didn’t want to drink anymore because he was a single father and he thought he would be a better dad if he wasn’t drinking. I was five, so I don’t really know if he had a ‘problem’ as such, I just know he used to drink heavily. He went twenty eight years without a drink, then in the last six months he’s started drinking again. He’s still an amazing dad, and an even better granddad but I’m worried and so is my stepmum. She’s never known him to drink in the fifteen years they have been married, not even on their wedding day.
He’s still going to work as normal, walking the dogs, basically behaving exactly the same except every night he’s been drinking so much he passes out on the sofa and throwing up every morning. This is so unlike him, and he’s told my stepmum he stopped drinking once, he’ll just stop drinking again when he’s ready. He’s also not spoken to her at all about any past issues he may or may not have had, so I really have no insight into his past relationship with alcohol.
I would like to speak to him about it because he looks after my 3 year old and 9 month old quite a lot and although i’m 99% confident he hasn’t drank whilst looking after them so far I’m worried it’s going to spiral into that. Does anybody have any advice on how to broach this with him? Is there any do’s and don’t’s? Does it sound like he might be an alcoholic? Thanks in advance xx