The End?

AFF Newsletter on Substack #53

Welcome to the AFF Newsletter on Substack.

I had the absolute pleasure of watching my son perform in his first school play the other day. He was amazing. The joy I felt inside was visible in my smile that stretched from ear to ear. Obviously I am biased, but he was easily the best thing about the show!

Watching him light up when he saw me in the crowd and the unrivalled enthusiasm with which he took to his role, filled me with so much pride and joyous happiness. It is a memory that will always stick with me. I owe that to my sobriety.

I could go on and on about how proud I am of him for stepping up like he did. Whilst some of the kids around him lost their nerve or forgot their lines, my son confidently spoke and even added in a few adlibs and unscripted actions which only heightened his performance.

I love him. He is wonderful.

However, spitting superlatives about my son isn’t the purpose of this post.

I am looking for some answers, dear reader.

I appreciate your support over this past year. It feels like such a long time since I posted the first AFF Newsletter on Substack.

A lot of things have changed since that first post but one thing has stayed consistent and that is my desire to help as many dads as I can get sober and stay sober, prosper in recovery and become the best dads they can be.

Sadly, I have to hold my hands up and say, something isn’t working. My posts are not resonating. I upped my articles from once a month to daily then settled on twice a week (four times a week if you include Birth of Clarity). I thought that might fix it but after looking at the stats, it looks like that hasn’t worked either.

I can only look at myself. I must be doing something wrong. The posts I’ve written - this is the 62nd - must not be engaging enough.

I have tried to share stories from my life and highlight the struggles I’ve had with alcohol, share the strength and hope I’ve gained in recovery and convey the blessings sobriety has given me on my parenting journey.

But my writing doesn’t appear to be clicking.

I can only apologise for that.

I’ve always wanted to produce engaging content that sparks discussion. Posts that have snippets of gold in them that help people. Shareable articles that serve as good resources for dads/men struggling with alcohol, dads/men in recovery and dads on their fatherhood journey.

I had wanted to pursue writing full-time.

On the back of what I’ve outlined above, I have to take the direction of this newsletter into real consideration as we move into 2024.

Ultimately, with your help, I need to decide what to do.

I spend so much time and energy writing each post so I need to consider whether I am approaching this in the right way, whether a drastic change is needed or whether I pull the plug altogether.

To tie it back to the beginning, I have to decide if the time and energy spent working on my two newsletters would be better served with my son.

I value you and thank you for taking the time to read these posts.

I know this is a departure from my usual addiction, recovery and fatherhood posts but I’ve always been raw and honest with you so I feel I owe it to you to be both of those now with this issue.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

I need your help

Is this the end? I hope not, but I do need your guidance.

Please take a look at the poll below and answer it honestly. I need to gain some perspective concerning the future of this newsletter and what better way to do that than ask you, dear reader.

If you don’t see an answer that sums up your feelings or you want to expand upon an answer, please reply to this post using the ‘leave a comment’ button below the poll.

Thank you in advance for answering this poll but before I go, I just want to say that I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

If this time of the year is a struggle for you around alcohol then please check out this post. Hopefully, it will help:

Stay safe. Stay sober.

Regardless of what happens next year, I want to say a big thank you for subscribing to the AFF Newsletter and supporting me this year. It has been amazing to write for you.

Thank you for reading “The End?” I appreciate you.

Please check out the latest AFFATHERS post below. If you’re interested, I write daily content on my website.

Check out the last premium post “Moving Boundaries and Escalation”.

Take care of yourself and your family,

Roscoe | @AFFathers

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