Navigating a healthy co-parenting relationship can be difficult, even if you are on good terms with your ex like Jana Kramer is. She recently had her ex-husband Mike Caussin (and her new husband Allan Russell!) join her on her podcast to talk about how they handle raising their kids, and Caussin revealed the one thing that “stings the most” about their entire blended family.
The One Tree Hill alum, who shares Jolie, 8, and Jace, 5, with Caussin and baby Roman, 1, with Russell, revealed that her older kids call Russell “Dad” sometimes on this week’s episode of her Whine Down With Jana Kramer podcast, per PEOPLE. “That’s a tough one. They’ve never called Allan ‘Dad’ at my house,” Caussin replied. “I’m not going to sit here and tell them you can’t call him what you want to call him.”
Even though young kids calling their stepfather “Dad” doesn’t mean they love their real dad any less, Kramer seems to be really sensitive about Caussin’s feelings on the subject. She recalled that they had a conversation about it last year before Roman was born. “And we’re like, ‘We can’t say what they can and can’t do. If they want to call him the Easter Bunny, they can call him the Easter Bunny. They can call him whatever he wants,'” she said. “I’m not going to say you have to call him ‘Dad.’”
Caussin confirmed that she does not pressure her kids to call Russell “Dad,” which is a good thing. “Yeah, and you don’t. No one has to do any kind of correcting. But that one stings the most,” Caussin said. “If I were to hear it, or if the kids tell me, ‘Oh, Mom told us to call him Dad,’ that would send me.”
That would be so hard! I would get emotional if my kids ever called someone else “Mom,” so I can’t even imagine. Still, it seems like Kramer and Russell are doing their best to ensure no feelings get hurt. Russell said he wouldn’t let the kids call him “Dad” if Caussin was around, and Kramer reiterated that she’ll only say stuff like, “Go give this to Dad” if she’s referring to something related to Roman, but still calls her husband “Allan” around the kids “90 percent of the time.”
“And that I’m cool with and I’m able to separate myself to a degree,” Caussin said. “But yeah that’s just the hardest thing. Again, it’s like missing moments with the kids. It is what it is. Comes with the territory.”
Russell added that “Dad” sometimes “slip[s] out of their mouth,” but he knows the kids aren’t making it “a habit” to refer to him that way. “Yeah, at this point they kind of call you what they call you,” Caussin replied. “But I defend that, it’s like, a father or a dad is someone who provides, protects, takes care of a child, whether biological or not. So, you know, you’re still worthy of the title obviously. But yeah, the kids know.”
Also in the episode, Kramer and Caussin talked about child support payments, which Kramer said is “the only thing we really, truly fight about,” per Us Weekly. Kramer has primary custody of the kids and was ordered to pay Caussin $3,200 a month for child support, according to the outlet.
He called it the “last remaining resent” after their divorce on the podcast. “Jana hasn’t made up that I enjoy receiving that, especially with money being a thing in our marriage and our history and all this kind of stuff,” Caussin said. “You always kind of brought that up. The last thing I want is for you to think that I want that from you. So, finding my way post-divorce [and] finding my career where I can provide and do all of that stuff has taken some time.”
Now, he’s working hard to be able to provide for their kids on his own and recently started his own business. “I have my goal [that] by a certain time, I’m going to show up and have a paper from my lawyer signing over, like, ‘Hey, this is not your legal obligation anymore,’” Caussin told Kramer, per Us Weekly. “That’ll be the most freeing moment for me, like, ever in the history of Mike and Jana. So, no part of me enjoys [receiving the funds] at all. I hate it.”
It’s definitely not easy figuring all this stuff out, but Kramer and Caussin seem to be doing their best to put their kids first (with Russell being a supportive husband at the same time). Still, these are issues that many parents struggle with, so props to Kramer for bringing awareness and honestly to this sensitive topic with honesty, patience, and grace.
These celebrity exes are getting co-parenting right.
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