"father" in the Big Book

I must turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all.

His income is good, he has a fine home, is happily married and the father of promising children of college age.

He is the Father, and we are His children.

But for every man who drinks others are involved— the wife who trembles in fear of the next debauch; the mother and father who see their son wasting away.

We have tried to hold the love of our children for their father.

We have told small tots that father was sick, which was much nearer the truth than we realized.

Perhaps at this point we got a divorce and took the children home to father and mother.

Unless they actually need protection from their father, it is best not to take sides in any argument he has with them while drinking.

They remember when father was romantic, thoughtful and successful.

Father knows he is to blame; it may take him many seasons of hard work to be restored financially, but he shouldn’t be reproached.

Having been neglected and misused in the past, they think father owes them more than they are getting.

Both father and the family are mistaken, though each side may have some justification.

Little by little, mother and children will see they ask too much, and father will see he gives too

Assume on the other hand that father has, at the outset, a stirring spiritual experience.

When father takes this tack, the family may react unfavorably.

They often forget father was beyond human aid.

They suspect father is a bit balmy!

Father feels he has struck something better than gold.

If the family persists in criticism, this fallacy may take a still greater hold on father.

Liquor incapacitated father for so many years that mother became head of the house.

By force of circumstances, she was often obliged to treat father as a sick or wayward child.

When sober, father usually obeyed.

Father, coming suddenly to life again, often begins to assert himself.

Father may have laid aside for years all normal activities—clubs, civic duties, sports.

Father will necessarily spend much time with other alcoholics, but this activity should be balanced.