How to I teach my children to be safe when their father is drunk?

[wallypops]

My DDs are 7.75 and just 9. I was divorced from their dad 5.5 years ago. He was a drunk when I met him although I didn't spot it. He doesn't drink every day, but will manufacture social reasons to drink. One drink and he cannot stop. He is never hung over. He doesn't admit that he has any kind of problem. He doesn't have very many friends, because when he gets drunk he insults them.

We live in France, he is French, and we have been to court 4 times already including the divorce. And apart from the divorce, never instigated by me. If we go back to court again it will have to be the children's choice, not mine. They will need to write to the judge to say why they want to change the current set up and they will then get awarded their own lawyer. If they choose to do this, they will then get to "choose" who they get to spend their time with. This is just the way the system works here, and in general the system is pretty good and I have had way too much experience of it. Before the summer they wanted to do this, but of late they don't seem to want to.

He has the children every other weekend and half the holidays which is standard minimum in France.

They know that there Dad has a drinking problem, but they don't seem to be able to recognise when he is drunk. He used to live with someone who pretty much protected them, but now he lives alone. In the last 10 days I have had telephone contact with him and all 3 times he has been roaring drunk, and on one of those occasions the girls were with him. Generally speaking he is a pretty hideous drunk. The girls recognise "nasty" drunk better than "nice" drunk, but honestly it is screamingly obvious from his voice, eyes, posture - everything.

What can I tell my DDs to keep them safe when they are at his house? I have read up on information, mostly US, but it is more focused at teens, and the language is complicated. They would need to understand about addiction, abuse, that they are at risk of becoming addicts themselves etc in order to get a grip on the information I have found. They used to take a phone with them but he found it and has banned it, and they aren't willing to defy him (he is bloody scary, so I don't blame them).

Hmm, not that it makes much difference to the matter at hand, but how do you know he doesn't drink daily?

It concerns me that one thing they are learning is how to accommodate, and to some extent excuse, alcoholism and manipulative behaviour, which by necessity is what they have to do in order to live with him.

I'm not trying to give you a hard time, OP, but please, if it's the only way to get something done, do everything you can to get that letter to the judge written.

And I truly believe that the best I can do for them in the long term with their relationship with their Dad is by setting an example and boundaries

Honestly, I truly believe the best you can do for them is to get them away from their father asap.

I could be wrong, and I don't mean to judge you unfairly OP, but I get the sense that you're kidding yourself about how much danger they're in, emotionally as much as physically.

And they don't come first with their father.

Even if they come first with everybody else, it is not good for them to be in a relationship with a parent who puts their wellbeing (physical, emotional) second to alcohol.

Cross-post there with Twinkle.

No I know that them being there doesn't stop him drinking. But I really do know that he doesn't drink every day. If he did then he couldn't pretend that he doesn't have a problem.

I'm not minimising this at all, and when they were younger it was even more bloody terrifying, and I get that it is difficult for people in the UK (or anywhere more enlightened than France) to understand/believe how rubbish it is here in regards alcohol abuse and kids.

This has to go through the courts for there to be any change - and that will take an absolute minimum of a year. If social services are involved it is likely to take considerably longer - probably a further 6 months. If I "take them away" without going through the courts, I will loose custody to him permanently. That is a fact. And believe me when I say that if I magic them away he will hunt us all down and I will loose them for ever and go to prison. I have looked into it, but it would be impossible to do. Court is the only way. Being in the UK certainly wouldn't keep them safe from him.

This is why I am asking for advice on how to help them be safe and a bit more savvy about the drinking. What can I tell them, how can I explain to them in a way that makes sense to them? I am trying everything that any one here says. But none of them are really hitting home. Actually if anything I feel like I'm loosing ground, but maybe that's just my frustration.

But I really do know that he doesn't drink every day. If he did then he couldn't pretend that he doesn't have a problem.

Unless you're with him 24/7 how can you possibly know that? And yes he could - denial is a defining feature of the illness.

While I'm disappointed to hear it, if you say that's how it is in France then I have no reason to disbelieve you. But, regardless of how long the process will take, I think you owe it to your DDs to get it underway.

Have you consulted a UK family lawyer? There must be specialists in the area of international family law.

I'm afraid I'm at a loss as to how to help such young children become more savvy.

I hope others with experience will post, but agree that it's likely that there'll be a reluctance to advise anything other that getting them away from their father's dysfunction.

Yes, I did consult a top British guy before I consulted a French lawyer when we were getting divorced. I'm unclear why anyone thinks that anything in the UK is going to help here. I am under French jurisdiction, we live here, work here, go to school here, have a French divorce and 2 French custody agreements, which would be valid under European law.

I actually have a completely kick ass lawyer here. One of the reasons I cannot do anything is I cannot get anyone, but anyone, to testify against him about being drunk in charge of the kids. And as I am not an actual witness to his current drinking when he is with the kids I can't testify to anything at all. I try to record his phone conversations with me when he is drunk. If he got caught drunk driving, with or without them then that would play into our hands, but my main aim is to keep them out of his car if he has been drinking. And to do that they need to recognise when he has been drinking - thus my original question.

I guess you can choose to take my word for it or not, but he doesn't drink every day. I'm not sure that that actually changes anything anyway. The fact is he abuses alcohol, and when he chooses to drink everything else is secondary at best.

The French family courts currently believe that it is in the best of interests of children to have continuing contact with both parents until such time as the children choose otherwise. And this pretty much goes for much worse situations than this.

I agree that the best way forward is to get the kids, or one of them to write a letter, but that only gets us as far as them getting a lawyer, and then it'll be out of my hands pretty much entirely. And if they say to the lawyer that they don't want to pursue it then we are nearly back to square one again. But, at least they will then have a lawyer.

I'll hold my hands up to not understanding how French law, UK law and European law may or may not work together. I suppose I wondered (because European citizens can move between countries with relative ease) if French law may not necessarily be the last word. I didn't mean to sound like it doubted what you said.

I doubted, not it.