Full Time Care

One of the most difficult things for me when my partner is trying to stop drinking is her vagueness. I’m not some career-driven, incredibly decisive individual but I do like to know what’s going on and have answers to questions when asked. So when we chat about what we’d like to do today, it gets really annoying to hear “I don’t know” all the time.

Every question takes about ten minutes to work through to an answer. First off, she doesn’t know. Then she changes the subject to something totally random two or three times. Then she still doesn’t know. More vagueries of subject follow. Eventually, we’ll get to an answer, but it always feels like I’m pushing and pushing when I should just be able to chat normally.

What difference does it make? As a full-time carer, one would imagine that it wouldn’t matter, right? Wrong. I may be a carer, but I also have things I like to do during the day and not knowing where we’ll be or when I’ll have a minute to blog, write or even just sit and watch an episode of Stargate can be really infuriating. Like anyone, I need to exist in my own right.

It’s day three of my lady’s current attempt to reduce her alcohol consumption. Days three to five are always incredibly hard, so we’ve made a deal: we go out this afternoon to see her analyst, then she can relax and have something to drink this evening. It’ll be tough for her to resist, but she’ll have achieved a goal and can be proud of holding on a little bit longer. Good for her!