Okay, so no sane person would have an elephant in their living room. Try as you may, it won't be ignored. It continues to make messes, continues to dominate the house, and continues to drive you crazy despite all your best efforts to ignore it. The elephant's there. It's real and it's not going away.
Alcoholism screws children up.
Lying about it makes it worse. Admitting the elephant is there is what we in recovery call getting out of denial . Admitting we're powerless over it and need help can start us on the road to recovery . Instead of it being the end of the world, acknowledging the elephant is often the beginning of a new life. And, ironically, once you admit the elephant is real, you'll probably discover everyone around already knows about it anyway.