One line from the Sunday papers is still haunting me today. In the Mail on Sunday, Phillip Blond wrote that, “one million children have alcohol-addicted parents”. Think about that for a minute. What hope can these children have growing up in these kind of households? How can we as a society ensure that these children have a decent chance in life despite such a challenging start?
There are no easy answers to these questions. Considering the state’s appalling record with children in care, taking these children away from their parents is not the answer. But then what is? It seems that the only answer is to deal with the problem at source, to ensure that there are fewer alcoholic adults and that people take the responsibility of being a parent more seriously. But that is only going to come from a bottom up, societal reformation rather than any quick-fix, top-down government solution.
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