0:23

Hello and welcome to Blended Fatherhood . I'm your host

0:25

, james Ferris , and on today's episode we're going to be talking

0:27

about a brief overview

0:29

of some things that you can kind of get your mind

0:31

wrapped around of when your step kids

0:34

do not have a biological

0:36

father that is actively involved in their lives

0:38

. And I just want to give a little

0:41

disclaimer . This topic

0:43

is incredibly complex , incredibly

0:45

emotional and one that

0:47

can take a really big toll on

0:50

the upbringing of a kid , and

0:52

just the idea of an absent parent

0:54

has a really kind

0:57

of drastic effect on how a kid

0:59

views the world and

1:01

experiences love and different

1:03

emotions as they grow up . And

1:05

so I just want to say that , like again , i'm

1:07

not an expert in this This is more

1:10

of just some like basic information from

1:12

a stepfather

1:14

who has kids who don't have the

1:16

most active biological fathers in

1:18

their lives , and just some stuff that you can do . This

1:21

is not going to go over everything super

1:23

in detail And there

1:25

will probably be more episodes on this

1:27

topic , because it is very , a

1:29

very important topic and one that affects

1:32

a lot of different things that happen , but again

1:34

, i just want to throw out a disclaimer that

1:36

it can get a little emotional and

1:39

triggering to some people , because there's

1:41

a lot of like baggage and emotion

1:43

and memories and feelings

1:45

that just deal with the idea of an absent

1:48

father . So let's just get started

1:50

real quick and talk about how

1:52

you can kind of help your stepchild

1:55

cope with this kind of idea of

1:57

loss and disappointment , because that's what we're

1:59

talking about here . When you have

2:01

a child who is

2:03

missing a parent , either by

2:05

them not being actively involved or them

2:07

being like sort of involved , they

2:10

have this idea of loss in

2:13

their head right . And normally when

2:15

we say loss of like someone lost someone

2:17

, that's usually like they have passed away

2:19

, they have died , and so then there's a grief

2:22

and they have to grieve that loss . Now

2:24

family dynamics are complicated And

2:26

so let's say , your wife divorced

2:28

her now ex-husband and

2:31

that's kind of split the family up , and

2:34

so the kids have to deal with this idea of like . Now

2:36

I have a new family dynamic where my parents are

2:38

not living together . They are

2:40

not together And there's a loss

2:42

of like that family unit

2:44

number one , number two . If

2:46

the father then kind

2:49

of disappears from their life , maybe

2:51

not instantly , but over the course of time

2:53

, they are consistently trying to grieve that loss

2:55

and trying to figure out how to deal

2:57

with that loss . Now take that

2:59

idea and then you step into the

3:02

picture and they have someone who's trying to

3:04

fill that gap while they're still

3:06

grieving the loss of something that might

3:08

still kind of be there . Like that's a lot

3:10

of complex emotional

3:13

situations for a child

3:15

to handle , and the younger they are , the

3:17

more they will not know how to deal with those emotions

3:19

that come up or the anger that comes up or the sadness

3:21

that comes up . The older they

3:24

are , the more they're going to realize a

3:26

couple of different things that are in

3:28

that situation . Like hey , it's not

3:30

really his fault that

3:32

he's coming into the picture , you know , i

3:35

understand that , i understand the logic

3:37

behind that . But even if they understand

3:39

like hey , it's not , you know you're

3:41

a fault . Like you're the stepfather , it's not your fault that you're

3:43

coming into the picture , they still have to

3:45

grapple with that situation , even if

3:47

they logically understand that . And so

3:49

just because they're older and they can have

3:51

that kind of understanding , there's still a lot

3:53

of like emotional sort of

3:55

things that arise from the idea

3:58

of an absent father

4:00

. Now another disclaimer I didn't

4:02

grow up with an absent father . My father was there all

4:05

the time . You know , even when we were younger

4:07

like he might have . He has his own issues and things

4:10

that he he's dealing with . He

4:12

did a pretty good job raising us and I love my dad . I'm

4:14

really good friends with my father . You

4:16

know we talk fairly often And

4:19

so I don't have personal experience with

4:21

this idea of an absent father

4:23

, and so this is not drawing from

4:25

that experience of the child . Now we

4:27

will have an episode soon

4:29

where we'll be talking , probably

4:32

with my , my daughter , and

4:34

kind of going over some of that from the perspective

4:36

of the child , because I think that is really interesting

4:38

to hear and to understand

4:40

, because if you're a guy going into the

4:42

situation , it's not the easiest to put your

4:45

shoes or put your feet in the shoes

4:47

of your stepkids , especially if you have

4:49

no sort of personal experience . That's my

4:51

thing , i didn't have any personal experience . I'm like my

4:53

dad was always there And

4:55

because of that it's hard sometimes

4:58

for me to put my feet in their shoes , okay

5:00

, and it makes me a little bit less kind

5:04

of empathetic to that situation And

5:07

so this can be kind of difficult . But

5:10

I have been in the situation

5:12

and I am in the situation where I

5:14

am the step-parent to two kids whose

5:17

biological fathers are not as involved

5:19

as I would want them to be , and they probably

5:21

want them to be , and that can be really

5:23

heartbreaking , especially when you're the

5:26

dad and you're trying to , you

5:28

know , make them feel loved and make them feel like everything

5:31

is okay , because no matter what you do

5:33

, no matter how hard you try , you

5:35

will not fill that gap that

5:37

exists because their biological father is

5:39

gone And it's not your job

5:42

to fill that gap , like so . Those are two

5:44

things that we need to think about in regards to like

5:46

it's not your job to fill the gap , even if you

5:48

really , really , really want to , and it's not

5:50

gonna happen the way you want it to happen

5:52

, where it just magically fills that

5:54

gap in their life and everything magically

5:57

, you know , goes really well , it's

5:59

not gonna happen . So you wanna make sure your expectation

6:01

is not that , hey , i'm gonna come in

6:04

, i'm gonna be the dad , i'm gonna fill that role

6:06

, everything's gonna be all hunky

6:08

dory or whatever . It's

6:10

unrealistic , and so you

6:12

need to have that expectation that like , hey , i'm

6:14

probably not gonna fill that gap , but even

6:16

if I'm not gonna fill that gap , i can still

6:19

do some things

6:21

to help the situation progress

6:23

in a really nice way and

6:26

kinda deal with some of those issues that happen

6:28

. So first things first , you wanna

6:30

make sure that you allow your step

6:32

kids to let out

6:34

any of that emotion that they are feeling in

6:36

regards to their biological

6:39

father not being there . Now you might wanna

6:41

play the hero and kinda rescue

6:43

them and try to fix it , and you don't really need

6:45

to do that . They need to feel their emotions

6:47

. If you're not letting them feel their emotions

6:50

, you're kinda just like shoving things under

6:52

the bridge and kind of hiding

6:54

it and not dealing with any root

6:56

problems . You're also not preparing

6:58

them for things that go into the future because

7:00

regardless , or not even

7:03

just normal parenting , you're not

7:05

always there for your kids and you're not always

7:07

gonna be there for your kids , no matter how much you want

7:09

to . They have to eventually

7:11

grow up and do things by themselves and so

7:13

if you constantly are trying to rescue them from their

7:15

disappointment or make

7:17

them feel better about it all the time and

7:19

not letting them experience their feelings and

7:22

their emotions and acknowledging those emotions

7:24

, you're not setting them up for success in

7:27

the future . So try as hard as you can

7:29

not to shove those away

7:31

or rescue them from those emotions . Now

7:34

I have my son , and

7:36

his dad comes around every once in

7:38

a while , which is great , but

7:40

it doesn't always happen as much as I maybe want

7:42

it to happen , and I don't think

7:44

it happens as much as he wants it to happen . There are

7:46

times where he'll call his dad and his dad won't pick up

7:48

and maybe that'll be a couple days in a row and

7:51

then he finally picks up , right . And so it's

7:53

not my job to kinda be like well , maybe he's busy

7:55

and kinda sugarcoat that and it's

7:57

more of just like hey , you know , i'm sorry , buddy

8:00

, that sucks . I wish

8:02

I could make him pick up

8:04

the phone , but I can't . And kinda

8:06

you just wanna make sure that you're there for them and

8:09

you allow them to experience those emotions in

8:11

full and just be that person who's supporting

8:13

them genuinely , even if you

8:15

can't just kinda fix those emotions right . You

8:18

also want to make sure that you're nurturing

8:20

that self-esteem that they have . Right , because

8:22

I don't know about you

8:25

, i don't really like being rejected . I don't think most people

8:27

like being rejected . You know

8:29

whether it be just like hey , i had a job interview and they

8:31

said no , i don't like that rejection , right

8:33

. But if you're a child whose parent is

8:35

constantly not picking up or not showing up to

8:37

things or not really involved , you have experience

8:40

of constant rejection , right ? That

8:42

can be pretty detrimental to a child's

8:44

self-esteem , and so you want

8:46

to make sure that you're building up that self-esteem

8:49

as they are going through this and

8:51

kind of making sure that you're teaching

8:53

them about that like unconditional love

8:55

. That's a little bit bigger

8:57

than they can think about it , even though

8:59

the person that's supposed to be the unconditionally

9:02

loving them is absent . And

9:04

that's one of those things that , like can be really

9:06

powerful is that you're a step

9:08

parent , right ? You're not required

9:11

not required Maybe that's not the right

9:13

word . You are not like innately

9:16

giving them some sort

9:18

of unconditional love because you have a biological

9:21

tie . You are choosing

9:23

to show them that you love them , regardless

9:25

of what's going on , and help

9:27

building them up as a person and nurturing

9:30

them . And that is very powerful because it's

9:32

saying the exact opposite of

9:34

what the absent father is doing . Right

9:36

, You're saying no , i want to be here , i'm

9:39

choosing to be here , i'm actively choosing

9:41

to be here , i'm not obligated to do this , i'm

9:44

choosing to do this , which is the exact opposite

9:46

of an absent parent just being like

9:48

I'm not picking up the

9:50

phone or I'm not showing up at the baseball game , or I'm

9:52

not going to the recital , or I'm

9:54

not , like you know , sending money

9:56

for the trip , or I'm just not asking

9:58

you how you're doing right . You're constantly being

10:01

that person who's encouraging

10:03

, building up that self-esteem , and you're actively

10:05

choosing it . Now that's like

10:08

a black and white picture . It's not

10:10

as easy as I just made

10:12

it sound . Right , because you could be met with

10:14

like I hate yous , get out , i

10:16

don't want you hanging around me . Uh , why

10:18

you asked me this question ? and

10:20

that's okay , that's going to happen . You know they might

10:23

they might still totally not like you

10:25

at all , but consistency

10:27

is something that is important in

10:29

this area , because you're still constantly

10:32

showing up , regardless of what's happening . It's

10:34

something that's like selfless . It's something that's

10:36

um shows that you

10:38

have good character , and it provides a good

10:40

role model image for your stepkids

10:42

going forward , someone who

10:45

puts themselves or puts

10:47

other people before themselves . And again , that's

10:49

like advice is so much easier said than done . You're

10:52

going to struggle with it . I struggle with it because there

10:54

are some times where I'm like man , i'm like

10:56

I don't , i got

10:58

this , like , oh , it's another thing , or

11:00

I get no praise for it . And then even the

11:02

idea and this is something that , um , we

11:05

can also delve into for a long

11:07

time is the idea that , no matter what you do , no

11:12

matter how many times , you're the one who's at the

11:14

soccer game and their biologic father is not at the soccer game

11:16

. You're going

11:18

to hear this comment that's like oh

11:20

, where's my dad ? And they're not referring to you , right ? You're

11:22

the one who showed up , you're the one who drove up , you're

11:25

the one who said , yeah , you're the one who cheered them on when they scored

11:27

that goal Or

11:29

when they got , like , slide , tackled and

11:31

hit the mud , whatever it is , you're

11:34

that person , but the person that they

11:36

want to be . There is someone who's not you , and

11:39

that's a difficult feeling for

11:41

someone who's putting in a lot of work to

11:43

be rejected yourself , and so you

11:46

have to . You're the adult , you're the

11:48

father , you're the leader of the family . You have to

11:50

get rid of some of that idea of like you're

11:52

being rejected by your stepkids and

11:55

you do the opposite and love them

11:57

instead . It doesn't mean that you don't bury

11:59

your feelings , and this is the one

12:02

thing that I'm going to say that is just

12:04

really simple to say and

12:06

difficult for , i think , guys

12:08

in general to do , is that you're

12:11

going to get rejected by your stepkids , even though

12:13

you're putting in the work and you're showing them that , hey

12:15

, I'm not rejecting you And that is okay

12:17

, and that is not your stepkids fault , okay

12:20

. I think a lot of stepfather sometimes get into

12:22

this realm where they're like man , these kids reject

12:25

me , man , you know what I'm done with them . Like

12:27

they're , they're ungrateful and I

12:31

just I put in all this work trying to love them or whatever

12:33

, and they don't and then the relationship slides

12:35

okay . First of all , it's

12:37

not their fault that

12:40

they want to see their dad . They're

12:42

100% valid and it's

12:44

okay for them to want to see their dad , talk

12:46

to their dad , have their dad at whatever

12:48

, have their dad involved in life . That

12:51

is great , and it's not your job to

12:53

put the negativity

12:55

of what you're feeling onto them . They

12:58

are 100% valid in what they're doing when

13:00

they want their dad to be involved in their life . And

13:02

just because you might feel hurt

13:05

by that statement , it

13:08

doesn't mean that it's their fault and that you need to take

13:10

it out on them . Instead you should talk

13:13

to your wife or talk to somebody

13:15

else , find a group of guys

13:17

and talk with them about it and

13:20

kind of air your grievances and

13:22

work on that yourself and not throw

13:25

it back to your kids . Okay , because

13:28

you're accepting of them

13:30

and you want them to be accepting of you

13:32

and you're gonna drive a bigger wrench into the relationship

13:35

if you take

13:37

offense to them wanting their dad

13:39

to be there . They are 100% valid and wanting their

13:41

dad to be there . I went on a little bit of a tangent

13:43

there And I will dive deeper

13:45

into that topic of , like you

13:48

as a stepfather kind of feeling slighted and

13:50

how you deal with that later on . So

13:53

coming back to like what you can do

13:55

because the father is absent , right , like

13:58

I said , building up your children's self-seeing , kind

14:00

of accepting them as who they are and where

14:03

they're at , which has to do with , like them , wanting their dad

14:05

there , but also just telling the truth

14:07

. Like you might want to say well

14:09

, maybe he's busy . You know he got caught

14:11

up doing blah , blah , blah . You know you don't need

14:13

to be the one who's making excuses for them . That's

14:16

their job . You know they're an adult

14:18

, they have consequences

14:20

to their actions and this kind

14:22

of goes back into the like , the letting it out thing . Don't

14:24

sugarcoat it , don't make excuses for them , just

14:27

tell the truth , like . A good example is like

14:29

your son wants

14:31

their dad to come to their basketball game , great

14:34

, you send the details , everything's there

14:36

, everybody knows . Whatever The biological father

14:38

does not show up , okay , it is not

14:40

your job to make an excuse and be like well , maybe he got caught

14:42

up at work or whatever and stuff like that . Just be like

14:44

hey , buddy , i'm sorry , i don't know

14:46

why he didn't show up . You

14:48

know you did great . You know you had some

14:51

amazing assist at three point was awesome . You

14:53

know I don't know why you're gonna have to ask him . That's

14:56

really easy to tell the truth . Because you don't . You

14:59

might know why and , depending on that

15:01

, why you might not want to say exactly what it

15:03

is . But even if you

15:05

, especially if you don't know why , just say I don't know , like

15:08

you're not , you're not . It's not your job to make an excuse . Be

15:10

like oh , he got held up in traffic or something , or

15:12

lie to your kid . It's gonna , it's gonna make

15:15

you not trustworthy

15:17

to your child , to your step

15:19

child or whoever , and so don't just

15:22

tell the truth , right . And then next

15:24

, don't don't add on to that by badmouthing

15:26

the biological father . You

15:28

know I've said this a bunch of times in

15:31

different episodes , but you really want to make sure that you're

15:33

not badmouthing them , and so

15:35

you know , and I can see this happening

15:37

where , like , they don't show up to the basketball game

15:39

, you're mad because they said they were gonna

15:41

be there . They , they weren't there . You can see the

15:43

disappointment on your step , kids face , whatever . And

15:45

you're just like man , what a jerk . And

15:48

you're saying it in your head and you're saying like

15:50

how can he just , you know , disregard this

15:52

. Like whatever , it's

15:54

not your job to say it out loud . Again , that comes into

15:57

the thing of just being like hey , you know what ? I

15:59

don't know , i don't know what happened . Buddy , i'm really

16:01

sorry , but you did great . You

16:03

know you don't have to be like I can't believe your dad

16:05

didn't show up . Like what a jerk . Like you want it , like

16:07

why would you say that ? Like you know , and if you

16:09

really want a place where you can say that , talk

16:12

to your wife about it . She's a great soundboard , she knows

16:14

the person who we're talking about . It doesn't need to become

16:16

a thing where you're just like I hate this guy , i hate this

16:18

guy And you kind of do this thing and

16:20

kind of have this really negative image of the person . But

16:24

you have feelings and you need to express

16:26

them . So your wife is a good person to

16:28

like talk through those

16:30

issues , you know . It's okay to talk

16:32

about it . Just don't do it in front of the step

16:34

kid and don't judge them

16:37

because of it . Right , they could have something else

16:39

going on And you know , given

16:41

the situation , you might know

16:43

what's going on and it could be something really bad

16:45

, you know , and so it's okay to kind

16:47

of be discerning of that situation

16:49

. But everybody has

16:51

actions that they do And but

16:53

they have to deal with the consequences . So what I mean

16:56

by don't judge , it's not your job

16:58

to be the person

17:00

who is giving them that consequence for

17:03

not showing up , right , because again

17:06

you're , you're encouraging of your step

17:08

kid , you're letting

17:10

them deal with that emotion

17:12

, but the consequence comes from , basically from the

17:14

step kid to their parent

17:16

and whatever happens happens . Again you're trying to be this like back

17:19

, sort of like supporting role for

17:22

your step kids . And

17:31

I think I'm gonna end

17:33

this in two

17:35

ways and we're gonna delve a lot deeper into

17:37

this , the negative side of this . This

17:40

will just be part one , really . I think a

17:42

really important thing is always

17:44

say and it's important that

17:46

you say this out loud , even if

17:48

it feels awkward and forced

17:51

a little bit , and this

17:53

is just something in general that I think people should

17:55

say more , rather

17:57

than just kind of thinking it in their

17:59

head and just assuming that

18:01

everybody knows what's going on is say

18:04

and remind your step kids

18:06

that you love them , that their

18:08

mom loves them . Right

18:10

, you care for them . Now

18:12

your actions are gonna speak that to them , but

18:15

saying it out loud is

18:17

very important , especially

18:19

because they are dealing with this idea of

18:22

being rejected and grief , and

18:24

so you can be . That person is saying like , hey

18:26

, i'm here , i love you , and

18:29

it might not get you anywhere , it might be

18:31

really weird , they might not like

18:33

it , they probably they might not say it back

18:35

at all , it doesn't matter . The

18:38

consistency of you showing

18:40

up , being supportive

18:42

, telling the truth , okay

18:44

, letting them have experienced things , their feelings

18:47

, and saying I love you is

18:49

way more kind of accepting

18:51

and non-rejecting to

18:53

them than they

18:56

might realize or you might realize . Okay , it

18:59

can be really powerful for you powerful for

19:02

them . The other thing is that it just kind of

19:04

like keeps everybody in check . Right Now you want

19:06

to not make sure you're not lying when you say I love

19:08

you , and obviously if you're not in a place where you

19:10

caring a lot , then you're

19:13

probably not listening to this , And even if you are , i'm

19:15

just saying that like is that you're taking

19:17

the long view and

19:20

how you approach your family And

19:22

you want your

19:25

family to be a healthy family where

19:27

everybody kind of loves

19:29

each other and can kind of grow and

19:32

be accepted . And

19:36

you know it is not your fault

19:38

that the situation that your

19:40

stepkids are in are in

19:42

okay . And so again

19:45

, because it's not your fault

19:47

, even if they think it's your fault , your

19:50

job is to be a

19:53

kind of like supportive role in

19:55

making sure that they feel loved and accepted

19:57

, and especially when they're in a spot

20:00

where they feel kind of rejected

20:02

by one of their parents . And

20:04

so I wanted to leave this episode kind

20:06

of with a story from my

20:09

sort of situation as a

20:11

step parent in regards to this like absent

20:14

father kind of being the supportive role

20:16

. And that's really tricky to do

20:18

because , like I've said , i don't want to badmouth

20:20

my kids' biological

20:23

fathers . I don't , you know , it's not

20:25

, it's again not any position

20:27

of mind for that to happen . And

20:31

so kind of coming up with a story that

20:33

doesn't shed like a bad light on them is

20:36

really difficult , because we're dealing with a topic where

20:38

the just kind

20:41

of general consistency that an absent father

20:43

is not really a good thing , you

20:45

know , even when you just like think

20:48

about a lot of people you know , or think about a lot of people's

20:50

like lives and maybe your life , where you

20:52

didn't have a father growing up or

20:54

you didn't , one of your parents was gone , and

20:57

how much kind of a toll that took on

20:59

you , and even in like movies , tv , drama

21:02

, whatever , it doesn't matter , if you read

21:04

it's all over the place and how this

21:06

is such a big issue , right , and

21:08

it usually is shed that the person who left

21:10

is like that's not , that's not a good

21:12

thing , and so because of that it's

21:14

really difficult for me to be like , say , a story

21:17

without making it seem like I'm

21:19

badmouthing them . Again , i'm not trying to judge the

21:21

biological parents of my stepkids , i'm

21:24

just saying that there are issues

21:26

and there are times where I

21:28

get really angry because something

21:31

is not happening and

21:33

it's something that I'm

21:36

just like why are you doing this

21:38

? Come on , okay

21:41

, and I think the feeling that the reason

21:43

I'm trying to say this is not a specific story , but

21:45

the feeling I get a good amount of times is

21:48

that this child

21:50

of yours is a

21:52

beautiful person

21:54

, who has a fantastic personality

21:57

, who's either funny , strong

21:59

willed , you

22:01

know , does things that are awesome , and

22:04

you should be really proud of the

22:06

child that you have And

22:08

you will have . And in my head

22:10

, i sit here and go like , why do you make

22:12

the decisions that you make to

22:14

separate yourself from having a relationship

22:17

with this person who

22:19

is awesome ? And

22:21

I don't have an answer to

22:23

that question , and that is a

22:25

part that I think we

22:28

could talk for hours , and hours and hours

22:30

about . But I think it's one of those feelings that you should

22:32

express out loud to

22:34

someone if you also feel them , like

22:37

I'm just saying that

22:39

if you have any anger here

22:41

about this issue , you should say it out

22:44

loud to somebody and you should talk about it

22:46

, because the anger that you have

22:48

is not going to go anywhere or be productive

22:50

if you keep it to yourself or let it drive you

22:52

to something that's not

22:54

good . And so , again , the idea

22:56

of saying a story can be a little

22:58

bit complex , and so I just want

23:00

to end with this idea that

23:03

is really simple . Your

23:05

stepchild will eventually figure

23:07

out what kind of man their

23:09

father is on their own , and

23:12

they may or may not forge some

23:15

type of relationship with them when

23:17

they're older or even as they're continuing

23:20

to grow up . It is not your job

23:22

to be the person who is angry

23:24

at their dad or

23:27

telling them how they should feel about

23:29

their dad . It is your job to

23:31

manage some of their expectations

23:34

and to be there for them

23:36

, no matter what happens or

23:38

no matter what you are feeling , and

23:40

you being there for them will

23:43

be more beneficial than

23:45

you telling them that their dad

23:47

might be a bad guy Because

23:50

, like I said earlier , you

23:53

are the person who's saying no , i accept

23:55

you , i want to be

23:57

here and

24:00

I love you , which

24:02

can be way more beneficial than

24:05

telling them what they should think . Just

24:09

be there for them , no matter

24:11

what happens , and be patient

24:13

, because this

24:15

is a 30 minute episode and

24:18

life takes years

24:20

to kind of get through some of these situations

24:22

. So be patient , manage those

24:24

expectations and just be there for

24:26

your stepkids , no matter what is

24:28

going on in their life . Thank

24:32

you so much for listening to this episode . Next week

24:34

we're going to be talking a little bit more about the same sort

24:36

of topic about like an absent father

24:38

, because it is something that's really

24:41

deep And then , i think , the

24:43

next episode after that , actually , i'm going to have

24:45

my daughter on for the podcast and we're

24:47

going to talk a little bit about it from the child's

24:50

point of view and from her point of view , and

24:53

so look out for that . Again , thank

24:55

you so much for listening . I know I've been gone for a couple

24:57

of weeks . School year

24:59

ended and we just kind of took a

25:01

couple of weeks in the summer Summer

25:04

break so had to kind of recharge . But

25:06

we'll be back into this full swing every week

25:09

, every other week episodes . So look for the

25:11

next episode . If you get any questions

25:13

, please email me at James at blendedfatherhoodcom

25:16

. Please like , subscribe , comment

25:18

, write a review and I will see you next

25:21

time .