Hello, welcome to the show.

This is Emotional Badass, where Moxie meets Mindful.

I'm your host, Nikki Eisenhower, life coach and psychotherapist.

And on today's episode, we're discussing the term daddy issues and father figures.

Music father figures. Thank you to everyone who spoke to me personally or wrote in to offer me and my husband

condolences for losing my father-in-law. Thank you so much. It's so kind

and it's so indicative of this community that we've built of care and concern for one another.

We are the deep feeling people out there, and that doesn't just come through

when I'm sending out depth that comes through when this audience shows up with some depth

for me and for Chris. Thank you all so much. I wanted to touch on what we mean when we say

daddy issues, right? This is a term all of us know if we grew up in the West. And losing

my father-in-law recently, it's really hit me that I've had six father figures. And that's not me

counting uncles or teachers or professors or counselors or supervisors or friends that have fit

a lot of male roles for me in my life. I've had

six actual father figures. I had my biological father, who was a daily presence in my life

from birth till six, almost seven years old. And that's when he began his deadbeat journey

until he fully abandoned me by the time I was 10.

And he would then go further and sign away his rights to me and my siblings when I was 14.

My step turned adoptive dad. He was another father figure in my life.

He came in my life when I was nine years old.

I would grow up and press charges against him. He ultimately served 14 of 20 years for crimes

against me and three other children. He was very active in my life. He was the parent in my life that was the most genuinely interested in me and my interests and what I was thinking about and what I was reading. He was a very active parent until I pressed charges when I was 24 years old. My grandfather, I would say, was the most fatherly man in my life.

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