sorry Johnny, yes you get the GOLD STAR, well done, correct guess
it was not a great relationship and I was on the verge of moving on, but I had no idea what it felt like to lose free access to your child. that really sucked and it really hurt. Now that Ive seen her a few times the concept of shared custody is becoming more normal. However I am still unsure if a bad relationship is worth going from a 100% dad to a 50% dad
American AA meetings are interesting from an outsiders point of view. Ive been to 3 different ones. They all follow the same formula but the groups who meet are a little bit different. I went to one that met on a tuesday morning at the local free clinic. and that was an eye opener. these people suffered from every kind of affliction of which booze was one. Drugs, booze, unemployability, poor social standards, poor intelligence, take your pick
thankfully I went to another that night and it was mostly working type people with one or another issue with booze.
they read a standard text at the start talking about confidentiality and some other religious stuff and references God a lot. where I live its a fairly small town, so they are no formally managed groups. they take turns chairing the meeting so some can be better than others. AT one meeting, some of the group just spoke up at will talking about how they got started at AA
then i went to another one on a saturday night and I may go to that one again tonight
there we were forced to say something, even if it that something was simply to pass to the next person. I live in the south so God does a play a large part in community life, but its a bit odd for me as a non religous type, to hear people talking about praying about giving up, prayng about the stupid things they have done etc
at some point they all say the lords prayer together, then at the very end around eververyon makes a big circle, holds hands and then repeats some mantra about being sober and to keep coming back as it really works
it was a very odd experience for me and I cant imagine the equivalent organisation in england doing things the same way