Happy New Year and Thank You

Let's have a wonderful 2024!

Welcome to the AFFathers newsletter on Substack.

Happy New Year 🙌

As you may have noticed, I've changed the name but aim to continue delivering the same raw and honest addiction, recovery and fatherhood content throughout 2024.

In my last post, I asked whether I should continue writing this year. The outpouring of positivity and productive advice was overwhelming and very much appreciated.

The End?

Thank You

I’d like to thank everyone who thought this newsletter was worth continuing. That vote of confidence means a lot to me.

A big thank you to

JBM

,

Dee Rambeau

,

Sean Talbeaux

,

Kaama Joy

,

Joan Stommen

,

Karl Straub

, 

Justus

,

Sweet Serenity

,

Qi Bing SIA

,

Patricia J.L. 👻🧶🖊️

and

c.d. mudge

for taking the time to write some wonderful messages of encouragement - all of which I will reply to in due course.

I’d also like to thank

Viam

and

Marc Typo

for their support.

Viam was kind enough to write this: “I want you to know that to me. You’re a hero. You give of your time to others. You use your experience to try to help others. You try to make this world a better place. I’m sure your son will be very proud of his father. For what it’s worth: I’m proud of you.”

Heroes in the Shadows

Yes, I shed a few tears after reading that. I can be an emotional guy sometimes! But reading that made me think that maybe, even though Viam isn’t necessarily my ‘target audience’, my writing does help people.

Thank you Viam.

Marc shared a Note which included these kind words: “I just wanted to say publicly that I admire your vulnerability and your commitment to a better world through telling your truth. Whatever you decide to do, just know you matter, and so does your work.”

Watching Marc grow on this platform has been great to see and his letters to his son are wonderful, so for him to write this to me was amazing.

I hope you, your wife and your son enjoyed Christmas.

For both of these guys to take the time to write such lovely things to someone they don’t know is a testament to the kind of men they are and an example of how I want to be.

When I wrote that last post I hadn’t considered some of the responses I would get and the advice I received really got me thinking.

So, now that I have committed to another year of AFFathers, what can you expect?

---

Some housekeeping…

During my brief hiatus, I realised that some things needed to change so here is the plan going forward:

• If you upgrade your subscription from free to paid then you will get a shout-out in the next post as a thank you.

• You will also receive a discount code for premium access to the new AFFathers Community. There is a free option too.

• There will no longer be a paywall post once a week instead those who choose to become a paid subscriber will get one bonus post a month.

• Whether you are a paid or free subscriber to AFFathers, you will receive one article per week in your inbox.

• I’ve unlocked the following premium posts so they can now be read by everyone:

  • Fatherhood: The Importance of Sports

  • Combating Chair Smashing Chaos with Clarity

  • Don't Drink, I Know What You're Thinking

  • The Rise and Fall of The Fad Man

  • A Letter to My Son

• I will also be writing weekly on affathers.com. Please support me over there too :)

---

My reason for dropping the paywall is similar to why Marc has never put one up in his newsletter. He summed it up perfectly in this Note: “I believe people will support if they love the work, and if they can.”

I want to create something that people love. I know the main topics I write about can be tough and the raw and honest nature of my writing can be emotional but I truly want to help people with my words. And if people can, I believe they will support those efforts.

Hopefully, through my writing in 2024, I can help more people struggling with alcohol to overcome their addiction than I did last year.

Anyway, however you decide to support this newsletter, I just want to say that I’m looking forward to writing for you this year.

Thank you for reading “Happy New Year and Thank You.” I will be back to writing my regular content next week but I thought it was important to address the state of the newsletter now.

Thank you once again for your support.

Take care of yourself and your family,

Roscoe | @AFFathers

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