Concern is increasing about children growing up in families where there are substance use problems but relatively little is known about the perspectives of the children themselves. This article reports on a qualitative study with young people who grew up in such families, exploring their accounts of their daily lives at home, school and leisure. The study focuses on the everyday interactions, practices and processes the young people felt helped them to "get by" in their challenging childhoods, showing how the protective factors thought to promote "resilience" were seldom in place for them unconditionally and without associated costs.