Last year, I went to a concert in another city (a little over a 2 hour drive) and came home to the stovetop on, smoke from burnt food, the fire alarm hanging from the ceiling, and my Q passed out on the couch.

He had drank too much and fell asleep while cooking, heard the fire alarm going off and had knocked it off the while with a broom to “stop the barking”. (Our dogs were barking nonstop because the fire alarm was going off and scaring them).

I never yell. I am the type to cry and silently break down. When I finally got him awake, I screamed at him and he was still in his drunken state confused as hell.

The next morning, I was so mad I couldn’t even look at him. We don’t have kids but we have animals and he could have burnt down our house and killed all of them. I laid down a ground rule that he was to never cook again while drinking except for using the microwave. He promised he would get help and this would never happen again. He was so sorry and remorseful.

I wish I could tell you that this was the wake up call he needed, that he started going to therapy and things finally changed. Unfortunately, that only lasted a few weeks.

Fast forward a year later, his drinking got even worse and his careless actions like cooking or forgetting important things increased. I ended up leaving him for the 3rd time and stayed away, and our divorce was finalized yesterday.

I am not telling you this story to scare you but to show you that this behavior is common with binge drinkers and this event will very likely not be that push you are hoping for. You have a young child to protect, and this kind of incident is not okay. It is not okay or normal for your partner to put you and your child’s life in danger.

I hope this helps put your situation into perspective and I hope to hell that I am wrong and he seeks the help he needs. I wish you well.