Daddy Tissues

📍 Episode 21 of Gina's story. New here? Start at Episode 1 → https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/episode/im-fcking-doing-this

We're taking a little pause in the story today. Superman has returned to his home, everybody's where they need to be — and I want to talk about something that's been sitting on my chest since I recorded the last one. Because at the end of that night I asked myself the question I always end up asking: why do I take one beautiful face and build an entire man out of it? And why do I need ten people to weigh in before I can decide whether I even like him?

Part of the answer showed up in a conversation with my mom and my sister. Here's why we were even having it: my brother and I have wrestled with anxiety and depression, my sister hasn't in the same way, and the three of us were trying to figure out why we turned out so different. Remember Episode Two — The Roots? Well, the roots are still growing. My sister said, "You know what I remember? Dad always brought something home for me. And he never had anything for you." And my mom said she always felt bad for my sister… because of me. I was the well-behaved one. Good grades, cheerleading, teacher's pet. "The kid I didn't have to worry about." And sitting there I heard something I'd never heard before: everybody thought I was fine, so nobody checked. I was getting attention — just not the kind I needed. Being the good kid doesn't mean you don't need anything. Sometimes it just means you got really good at not asking.

And here's what that kid grows up into: somebody who ran every decision through ten people — the Gina Sullivan Advisory Board — because she never learned to trust her own answer. Belonging and trusting yourself are not the same thing.

Then there's the part where I catch myself doing the exact thing my overwhelmed mom did — "when this is over, it'll be easier" — wishing away the very stage I'm standing in. Play with my kids, or do the wash. The dishes can wait — okay, for how long? Because now we have no forks. I check on the quiet one now, because I'm a mom and I know how you miss things. I don't want my kid to have to fall apart to get my full attention.

I'm in the lowest financial spot of my life — partly because I chose it. I had my son young, I missed things, and I'd do it all over again. My body hurts, my hair's falling out, I might cry — and I'm happy, because I finally know who I am. I lived forty years the other way. I've got a whole other half to live as me, because I said so. We are developing character and boiling water at the same time. To the kid everybody thought was fine: we see you.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

⚠️ Contains strong language and honest talk about childhood emotional dynamics, mental health, financial stress, and single motherhood.

📖 Daddy Tissues is a true story told in order. Start at the beginning. Links to episodes👇🏻

New episodes every Monday.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

Connect with Daddy Tissues: Follow along for more brutally honest conversations about dating, divorce, motherhood, daddy issues, toxic relationships, healing, self-worth, and all the emotional junk we somehow inherited without asking for it.

🎧 FOLLOW THE SHOW

If Daddy Tissues has ever made you laugh, cry, or think holy shit, me too, hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the next chapter.

Everywhere: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/listen

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033ygF97LFxvu3ZpHysLMb

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

⭐ LEAVE A REVIEW

That helps more than you know. It tells the algorithm that this white trash right here is worth listening to.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/daddy-tissues-6514529

💸 THE SWEAR JAR

Every “fuck” costs me a quarter.

Bail me out here: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/support

📱 SOCIALS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daddy.tissues.podcast

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSHPhqwR/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@daddy.tissues.podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECbqyrWpk/

Website: https://daddytissuespodcast.com

Music: “Do It Anyway” by Scarlett Solo, used under license.

Disclaimer: Daddy Tissues is a personal storytelling podcast for entertainment, reflection, and connection. It is not therapy, legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, or a replacement for professional support. Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect privacy.

📚 THE WHOLE STORY, IN ORDER: every episode, start to finish

📍 Chapter 14 of Gina's story (Episode 20). New here? Start at Episode 1 → https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/episode/im-fcking-doing-this

Twenty episodes. Twenty fucking episodes. I can't believe I even did this. So before we get back into the story, grab whatever you've got — your iced coffee, your water bottle, the juice box you just stole out of your kid's lunchbox — one hand on the wheel, please, I need you alive for the next episode. To you, for not deciding I was just some crazy bitch with a mic. Maybe you did. But you stayed. Cheers to you, cheers to me, and cheers to our fucking bodies for dragging us all the way here.

This is Chapter 14. Philly. January. Freezing. A random little Northeast bar we never go to, me and Dr. Murray with tequila up to our ears, my favorite little leather jacket, big hoops, lip gloss. I turn to my right and — well, look who the fuck it is. Superman. Seven years of nothing, one summer day in Sea Isle where I couldn't even get a bagel, and now here he is again. And this time I want an answer.

A few shots of Mr. Patrón later, I got one. Verizon couldn't help us, but the tequila could. He did get my text. He didn't answer on purpose — because of the neighbor. He and his friends went to high school with him, and his friends basically went, "Dude, are you crazy?" So I made it make sense the only way I knew how: anybody willing to sign up for all that must be amazing. The juice is worth the squeeze. My filtering system. Looking back? That was a pretty dangerous place to put the bar.

Then the rock wall, the car, the stairs up to my condo… and the next morning I'm hungover, there are two boys in my apartment, and I'm volunteering to drive them home to South Philly. Imagine spending years hoping a man will come to you and then personally providing the return trip.

Turns out I'd never really known who he was. I'd known how he looked. Quiet meant deep. Gorgeous meant romantic. I'd done most of this relationship by myself. So here's the question I wish I'd spent more time on: do I want him, or do I want the feeling I think I'll have when he finally wants me? Before you spend seven years wondering if a man likes you, try having a full conversation with him.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

⚠️ Contains strong language and discussion of heavy drinking, a hookup, a difficult co-parenting situation, and dating as a single mom.

📖 Daddy Tissues is a true story told in order. Start at the beginning. Links to episodes👇🏻

New episodes every Monday.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

Connect with Daddy Tissues: Follow along for more brutally honest conversations about dating, divorce, motherhood, daddy issues, toxic relationships, healing, self-worth, and all the emotional junk we somehow inherited without asking for it.

🎧 FOLLOW THE SHOW

If Daddy Tissues has ever made you laugh, cry, or think holy shit, me too, hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the next chapter.

Everywhere: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/listen

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033ygF97LFxvu3ZpHysLMb

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

⭐ LEAVE A REVIEW

That helps more than you know. It tells the algorithm that this white trash right here is worth listening to.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/daddy-tissues-6514529

💸 THE SWEAR JAR

Every “fuck” costs me a quarter.

Bail me out here: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/support

📱 SOCIALS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daddy.tissues.podcast

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSHPhqwR/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@daddy.tissues.podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECbqyrWpk/

Website: https://daddytissuespodcast.com

Music: “Do It Anyway” by Scarlett Solo, used under license.

Disclaimer: Daddy Tissues is a personal storytelling podcast for entertainment, reflection, and connection. It is not therapy, legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, or a replacement for professional support. Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect privacy.

📚 THE WHOLE STORY, IN ORDER: every episode, start to finish

📍 Chapter 13 of Gina's story (Episode 19). New here? Start at Episode 1 → https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/episode/im-fcking-doing-this

Seven years. Seven years I had not seen this man, not once. Same neighborhoods, same bars, same shore towns, same everything — Philly's not that big and the shore's even smaller — and not one sighting. He went from the moon to just gone. And now here he is, at the one bar, on the one day, at no-shower happy hour.

This is Chapter 13. I knew exactly what this was: God had finally answered my prayer from the ocean at 17. So I handed Dr. Murray my drink and walked across that bar like I was walking into surgery — me, the girl who never pursued a man in her life, who'd see a guy and discuss it with a friend for four to six business days. And he pulled my sunglasses down my nose real slow and said, "I want to see your face." On the one day I'm legally allowed to look like this and smell like this. That was the whole point of no-shower happy hour: the sunglasses stay on. And this man broke the deal to look at my face.

Numbers exchanged. I went home, showered, did the full face — the real face, the one I'd spent seven years wishing he'd seen instead of the other thing he saw — and sat there in my best outfit waiting by the phone like it was 1998 and he was going to call the landline. What happened at 2 a.m. involved his name and the letter N about 700 times. What happened the next morning involved an everything bagel, a bag of potato chips, and the floor.

Then, because believe it or not I was still on my mission, a bartender with beautiful eyes who made me laugh. We're calling him Night Shift. Almost a year of fun — no plan, no "where is this going," two ships passing in the same night, one of them docked by 9 p.m. with a retainer in. Until one night he got really drunk and said one sentence I can still give you with the punctuation. And a little while later there's a knock at my door: a crying man, a handwritten letter, and the exact Louis Vuitton I had wanted my entire adult life. A gift is not an apology. A gift is an apology-shaped object.

Two doorways, eight years apart. At 17 the bar was on the floor next to a bare mattress and I handed a man a medal for stepping over it. At 25 the bar went to the top shelf. The men didn't change — there's a Night Shift in every bar in America. What changed was the exit. Nobody tells you this part about healing: the day you're healed isn't the day you finally pick the right man. It's the day you pick the wrong one and leave in one sentence instead of 11 years.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

⚠️ Contains strong language and discussion of drinking, drunk texting, a blackout (recapped), and dating as a single mom.

📖 Daddy Tissues is a true story told in order. Start at the beginning. Links to episodes👇🏻

New episodes every Monday.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

Connect with Daddy Tissues: Follow along for more brutally honest conversations about dating, divorce, motherhood, daddy issues, toxic relationships, healing, self-worth, and all the emotional junk we somehow inherited without asking for it.

🎧 FOLLOW THE SHOW

If Daddy Tissues has ever made you laugh, cry, or think holy shit, me too, hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the next chapter.

Everywhere: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/listen

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033ygF97LFxvu3ZpHysLMb

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

⭐ LEAVE A REVIEW

That helps more than you know. It tells the algorithm that this white trash right here is worth listening to.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/daddy-tissues-6514529

💸 THE SWEAR JAR

Every “fuck” costs me a quarter.

Bail me out here: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/support

📱 SOCIALS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daddy.tissues.podcast

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSHPhqwR/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@daddy.tissues.podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECbqyrWpk/

Website: https://daddytissuespodcast.com

Music: “Do It Anyway” by Scarlett Solo, used under license.

Disclaimer: Daddy Tissues is a personal storytelling podcast for entertainment, reflection, and connection. It is not therapy, legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, or a replacement for professional support. Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect privacy.

📚 THE WHOLE STORY, IN ORDER: every episode, start to finish

📍 Chapter 12 of Gina's story (Episode 18). New here? Start at Episode 1 → https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/episode/im-fcking-doing-this

I'm recording this at two o'clock in the afternoon and I have not showered. I'm not sure when the last time was. I did school drop-off like this. I did the UPS return like this. I had a full conversation with another mother in a parking lot like this — and nobody has any idea. Sunglasses are a miracle we get to hide behind.

When I was 24 there was a magical place where you showed up like this on purpose. No shower, sweaty, salty, sticky and half naked. Now I'm 40, it's Tuesday, I'm late releasing my podcast for the second week in a row, and I would give anything to be half naked and sticky.

This is Chapter 12. First we finish Wildwood — what actually happened after that wave. One night inside Superman's shore house, a plastic bottle of Bankers Club, a jug of Friendly's Creamsicle mix in a blender, and exactly two Polaroids left in my head: a hallway wall, and a bare mattress with gum in my hair. Two witnesses, zero memories. And the part 40-year-old Gina had to stop the tape for — I woke up with no idea what happened, and the feeling I walked home with was thank you. That's where the bar was. On the floor, right next to the mattress.

Then back to the balcony and the promise. Never again. The mission to find the man with the W-2. The most reliable man of my entire life, who Dr. Murray and I found on the same night at the Springfield and agreed, like adults, to share — nurse, surgeon, scrubbing in. A blonde, tan schoolteacher with a Jude Law voice who called me Gige, took me to dinner in the city, heard "I have a son," and something behind his face closed. Your gut isn't being dramatic. It's being early.

And then the thing this whole episode is sitting on: no-shower happy hour at the OD in Sea Isle. The only happy hour in America where the dress code is don't. Everybody looks like a wet dog, so nobody looks like a wet dog. The one hour where a girl with a checklist, a title to win back, and a man and his lawyer building a version of her out of one true detail got to show up exactly as the day had left her. It was the ocean with a bar in it.

Lemonade in hand, sunglasses on, the best kind of day — and I look across the bar. Superman.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

⚠️ Contains strong language and discussion of heavy drinking, a blackout, and dating as a single mom.

📖 Daddy Tissues is a true story told in order. Start at the beginning. Links to episodes👇🏻

New episodes every Monday.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

Connect with Daddy Tissues: Follow along for more brutally honest conversations about dating, divorce, motherhood, daddy issues, toxic relationships, healing, self-worth, and all the emotional junk we somehow inherited without asking for it.

🎧 FOLLOW THE SHOW

If Daddy Tissues has ever made you laugh, cry, or think holy shit, me too, hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the next chapter.

Everywhere: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/listen

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033ygF97LFxvu3ZpHysLMb

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

⭐ LEAVE A REVIEW

That helps more than you know. It tells the algorithm that this white trash right here is worth listening to.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/daddy-tissues-6514529

💸 THE SWEAR JAR

Every “fuck” costs me a quarter.

Bail me out here: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/support

📱 SOCIALS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daddy.tissues.podcast

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSHPhqwR/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@daddy.tissues.podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECbqyrWpk/

Website: https://daddytissuespodcast.com

Music: “Do It Anyway” by Scarlett Solo, used under license.

Disclaimer: Daddy Tissues is a personal storytelling podcast for entertainment, reflection, and connection. It is not therapy, legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, or a replacement for professional support. Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect privacy.

📚 THE WHOLE STORY, IN ORDER: every episode, start to finish

📍 Chapter 11 of Gina's story (Episode 17). New here? Start at Episode 1 → https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/episode/im-fcking-doing-this

Somebody is saying something about you that is so wrong, so twisted, so completely fucked up that your brain disconnects — and what do you do? You smile. Head tilt. Little nod. "Mm-hmm."

Meanwhile, inside your body is a Slipknot concert. Front row. Volume all the way up.

This is Chapter 11. It starts with the Good Little Girl Expectation List — the one nobody hands you, but you know every line of by heart, numbers one through six — and the day I decided that me and my kids are done following it. You are the hostage and the hostage negotiator. Throw a chair, just don't hit anybody (and not the good chairs — the folding chair). The parents at the soccer game, and why a six-year-old is not a hostage negotiator. Anger is a second emotion; underneath it is sadness, always. Same feeling, two costumes. Why I'd rather be the wolf everybody's scared of than the donkey everybody rides on. Your permission slip to feel every single thing: signed, dated, no expiration date. Get out of the petting zoo.

Then me and my picker break up. The new picker wants a man with a W-2. And we go back to a Wildwood summer at seventeen: a boy in a black hoodie and big headphones at a Philly house party, a shore house with a staircase that went straight into the ceiling, the best wall in Wildwood, and a photo of a man on a Superman towel. My sister's bikini (she never found out). Standing in the ocean, my happy place, doing the most good-little-girl thing I have ever done — asking God, nicely, for a man I had never said one word to:

"God, I will do anything, and I mean anything. If I can marry this man, please God, I will do it."

God's answer? I asked for a husband, and He took my top off.

Fuck you, God. Seriously. That was fucked up.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

⚠️ Contains strong language and discussion of emotional abuse, anger, and dating after trauma.

📖 Daddy Tissues is a true story told in order. Start at the beginning. Links to episodes👇🏻

New episodes every Monday.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

Connect with Daddy Tissues: Follow along for more brutally honest conversations about dating, divorce, motherhood, daddy issues, toxic relationships, healing, self-worth, and all the emotional junk we somehow inherited without asking for it.

🎧 FOLLOW THE SHOW

If Daddy Tissues has ever made you laugh, cry, or think holy shit, me too, hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the next chapter.

Everywhere: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/listen

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033ygF97LFxvu3ZpHysLMb

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

⭐ LEAVE A REVIEW

That helps more than you know. It tells the algorithm that this white trash right here is worth listening to.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/daddy-tissues-6514529

💸 THE SWEAR JAR

Every “fuck” costs me a quarter.

Bail me out here: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/support

📱 SOCIALS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daddy.tissues.podcast

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSHPhqwR/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@daddy.tissues.podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECbqyrWpk/

Website: https://daddytissuespodcast.com

Music: “Do It Anyway” by Scarlett Solo, used under license.

Disclaimer: Daddy Tissues is a personal storytelling podcast for entertainment, reflection, and connection. It is not therapy, legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, or a replacement for professional support. Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect privacy.

📚 THE WHOLE STORY, IN ORDER: every episode, start to finish

📍 Chapter 10 of Gina's story (Episode 16). New here? Start at Episode 1 → https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/episode/im-fcking-doing-this

A few years ago I found an old camcorder in a box... there was my oldest, four years old, right after Christmas, in his little blue robe and slippers... I forgot his voice. I forgot what that little voice sounded like, and the second I heard it I missed it so much I couldn't breathe.

And I have a five-year-old downstairs right now.

This is Chapter 10. The years in the apartment while the box in my basement quietly filled up. A woman calling my kid's daycare to check whether I'd sent him in with a hat and gloves. Text messages that came in like novels with no chapters. A soccer game, a wedding I never got to, my aunt on the phone saying "Gina, he took him" — and me chasing them up to a door on a Philly street that got locked in my face while my son was on the other side of it.

The day my kid told his principal the truth and I had to decide what to tell child services. The thing I said to his father afterward that I've regretted ever since.

And then, because the universe has a sense of humor: Aspen. Down the shore. Telling me he and Boston are "just roommates." So I found her, and I told her everything, and she believed me — and then she never called. They got married. Coolio married the other woman too. Two for two.

Because sometimes we know the truth. We just don't want to actually know it.

I went from being the perfect one to the black sheep. And I spent the next twenty years trying to get my title back.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

⚠️ Contains strong language and discussion of family conflict, custody disputes, child welfare, and abusive relationship dynamics.

📖 Daddy Tissues is a true story told in order. Start at the beginning. Links to episodes👇🏻

New episodes every Monday.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

Connect with Daddy Tissues: Follow along for more brutally honest conversations about dating, divorce, motherhood, daddy issues, toxic relationships, healing, self-worth, and all the emotional junk we somehow inherited without asking for it.

🎧 FOLLOW THE SHOW

If Daddy Tissues has ever made you laugh, cry, or think holy shit, me too, hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the next chapter.

Everywhere: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/listen

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033ygF97LFxvu3ZpHysLMb

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

⭐ LEAVE A REVIEW

That helps more than you know. It tells the algorithm that this white trash right here is worth listening to.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/daddy-tissues-6514529

💸 THE SWEAR JAR

Every “fuck” costs me a quarter.

Bail me out here: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/support

📱 SOCIALS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daddy.tissues.podcast

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSHPhqwR/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@daddy.tissues.podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECbqyrWpk/

Website: https://daddytissuespodcast.com

Music: “Do It Anyway” by Scarlett Solo, used under license.

Disclaimer: Daddy Tissues is a personal storytelling podcast for entertainment, reflection, and connection. It is not therapy, legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, or a replacement for professional support. Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect privacy.

📚 THE WHOLE STORY, IN ORDER: every episode, start to finish

📍 Chapter 9 of Gina's story (Episode 15). New here? Start at Episode 1 → https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/episode/im-fcking-doing-this

The last time I told my story, my mother said the neighbor was going to torture me for the rest of my life, and I said he'd get over it. I was wrong — there's a box in my basement with 294 court entries that says so. But before I open it, you need to meet the girl who was living her life while it filled up.

This is Chapter 9. How I got out of my parents' house (there were scissors involved — nobody lost an ear). The car my dad took, the apology I didn't mean, and what my mother taught me about enduring. A bartending shift, a third-floor apartment over the Delaware River with my best friend, a walk-in closet that changed my life, and a mattress on the floor I was perfectly happy with. A Mercedes. A boob job. Shore houses. Some of the best years I ever had.

And right at the start of them, a boyfriend we're calling Aspen — the Spider-Man blanket guy — who suddenly, out of nowhere, got very into skiing. Every weekend. Until one night, with him asleep on my floor, I picked up his phone and met Boston. And a text about leftovers told me everything.

This one's about the night I learned I didn't need a confession to believe my own eyes. And about a closet that smelled like cigarettes I couldn't smell — because when you live inside something long enough, your whole body adjusts. Your nose. Your brain. Your idea of normal.

You can't smell your own house. But once you step outside long enough to smell it, it's really hard to pretend it doesn't stink.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

⚠️ Contains strong language and discussion of family conflict, infidelity, and toxic relationships.

📖 Daddy Tissues is a true story told in order. Start at the beginning. Links to episodes👇🏻

New episodes every Monday.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

Connect with Daddy Tissues: Follow along for more brutally honest conversations about dating, divorce, motherhood, daddy issues, toxic relationships, healing, self-worth, and all the emotional junk we somehow inherited without asking for it.

🎧 FOLLOW THE SHOW

If Daddy Tissues has ever made you laugh, cry, or think holy shit, me too, hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the next chapter.

Everywhere: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/listen

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033ygF97LFxvu3ZpHysLMb

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

⭐ LEAVE A REVIEW

That helps more than you know. It tells the algorithm that this white trash right here is worth listening to.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/daddy-tissues-6514529

💸 THE SWEAR JAR

Every “fuck” costs me a quarter.

Bail me out here: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/support

📱 SOCIALS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daddy.tissues.podcast

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSHPhqwR/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@daddy.tissues.podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECbqyrWpk/

Website: https://daddytissuespodcast.com

Music: “Do It Anyway” by Scarlett Solo, used under license.

Disclaimer: Daddy Tissues is a personal storytelling podcast for entertainment, reflection, and connection. It is not therapy, legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, or a replacement for professional support. Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect privacy.

📚 THE WHOLE STORY, IN ORDER: every episode, start to finish

📍 Chapter 8 of Gina's story (Episode 14). New here? Start at Episode 1 → https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/episode/im-fcking-doing-this

It's Labor Day weekend. Fireworks going off outside. I'm alone in my house, and instead of being at the shore, I went down to the basement and dragged up a giant box with one word written on it in permanent marker: COURT. Some people have a cooler. I have litigation.

Inside: 300 entries between two court cases — custody and support — and sixteen years of stories behind the paperwork. I sat down to tell you what happened after my mother said "he's going to torture you for the rest of your life," and I had no idea where to start. So instead, I cried. Loud. And then I told you the truth about where I am.

This is Chapter 8. Why the first story was easy to tell and everything after it comes in glimpses — a Facebook page my friends made about him, a co-parenting session I got kicked out of at nine months pregnant. All the years I spent trying to make peace with a man who only offered two options: be with him, or be his enemy. The dinners where I tried to be a co-parent and he tried to reopen applications for girlfriend. Polly Pocket and her little rolly cart, and why my six lawyers were never the problem. What all of this did to my friends and my little sister. And two people harassing me right now, at forty, making me ask: how am I back in this position?

I don't have it figured out. But I've got a whole box of what happened next.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

⚠️ Contains strong language and discussion of family conflict, harassment, and abusive relationship dynamics.

📖 Daddy Tissues is a true story told in order. Start at the beginning. Links to episodes👇🏻

New episodes every Monday.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

Connect with Daddy Tissues: Follow along for more brutally honest conversations about dating, divorce, motherhood, daddy issues, toxic relationships, healing, self-worth, and all the emotional junk we somehow inherited without asking for it.

🎧 FOLLOW THE SHOW

If Daddy Tissues has ever made you laugh, cry, or think holy shit, me too, hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the next chapter.

Everywhere: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/listen

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033ygF97LFxvu3ZpHysLMb

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

⭐ LEAVE A REVIEW

That helps more than you know. It tells the algorithm that this white trash right here is worth listening to.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/daddy-tissues-6514529

💸 THE SWEAR JAR

Every “fuck” costs me a quarter.

Bail me out here: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/support

📱 SOCIALS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daddy.tissues.podcast

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSHPhqwR/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@daddy.tissues.podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECbqyrWpk/

Website: https://daddytissuespodcast.com

Music: “Do It Anyway” by Scarlett Solo, used under license.

Disclaimer: Daddy Tissues is a personal storytelling podcast for entertainment, reflection, and connection. It is not therapy, legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, or a replacement for professional support. Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect privacy.

📚 THE WHOLE STORY, IN ORDER: every episode, start to finish

📍 Chapter 7 of Gina's story (Episode 13). New here? Start at Episode 1 → https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/episode/im-fcking-doing-this

I'm human. My electric got shut off, my kids are mean, and I don't have a production team — but the story keeps going.

Chapter 7: my first time ever in a courtroom (the first of hundreds), and the debut of a woman you'll be hearing a lot more about — Polly Pocket. What it feels like to walk into a room where everyone has already decided who you are. The gossip lesson I'm actually grateful for: "and then I became Linda." The hearing he walked away from with no consequences, and the regret I still carry about being the bigger person. An apology on my parents' doorstep I still can't tell you was real. And a porch, a man crying, and the four dumbest words I've ever said.

My mother told me he'd torture me for the rest of my life. "He'll get over it," I said.

Boy, was I wrong.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

⚠️ Contains strong language and descriptions of family conflict and abusive relationship dynamics.

📖 Daddy Tissues is a true story told in order. Start at the beginning. Links to episodes👇🏻

New episodes every Monday.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

Connect with Daddy Tissues: Follow along for more brutally honest conversations about dating, divorce, motherhood, daddy issues, toxic relationships, healing, self-worth, and all the emotional junk we somehow inherited without asking for it.

🎧 FOLLOW THE SHOW

If Daddy Tissues has ever made you laugh, cry, or think holy shit, me too, hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the next chapter.

Everywhere: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/listen

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033ygF97LFxvu3ZpHysLMb

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

⭐ LEAVE A REVIEW

That helps more than you know. It tells the algorithm that this white trash right here is worth listening to.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/daddy-tissues-6514529

💸 THE SWEAR JAR

Every “fuck” costs me a quarter.

Bail me out here: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/support

📱 SOCIALS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daddy.tissues.podcast

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSHPhqwR/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@daddy.tissues.podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECbqyrWpk/

Website: https://daddytissuespodcast.com

Music: “Do It Anyway” by Scarlett Solo, used under license.

Disclaimer: Daddy Tissues is a personal storytelling podcast for entertainment, reflection, and connection. It is not therapy, legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, or a replacement for professional support. Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect privacy.

📚 THE WHOLE STORY, IN ORDER: every episode, start to finish

📍 Chapter 6 of Gina's story (Episode 12). New here? Start at Episode 1 → https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/episode/im-fcking-doing-this

My three-year-old son was lying in a hospital bed recovering from being hit by a car — and that's when I found out his father had gone behind my back and taken emergency custody of him. Not because he wanted to raise him. Because I had moved on, and this was the punishment.

This is Chapter 6. The kitchen where my dad said "I'm going to start making phone calls." The welcome home party where nobody spoke to me for two days. The hospital bathroom, where a powerless 21-year-old found the only weapon she had access to — and used it. The phone call from my lawyer that changed everything. The five o'clock countdown. And a car caravan following me home, then standing on my lawn until my mother — the peacemaker, the one who never raises her voice — told them all to get off her property.

They thought they could write down whatever they wanted about a 21-year-old girl and take her child. They fucked with the wrong people.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

⚠️ Contains strong language and discussion of custody conflict and child injury.

📖 Daddy Tissues is a true story told in order. Start at the beginning. Links to episodes👇🏻

New episodes every Monday.

Grab your daddy tissues. Till next time, my queens. 🖤

Connect with Daddy Tissues: Follow along for more brutally honest conversations about dating, divorce, motherhood, daddy issues, toxic relationships, healing, self-worth, and all the emotional junk we somehow inherited without asking for it.

🎧 FOLLOW THE SHOW

If Daddy Tissues has ever made you laugh, cry, or think holy shit, me too, hit FOLLOW so you don’t miss the next chapter.

Everywhere: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/listen

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033ygF97LFxvu3ZpHysLMb

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

⭐ LEAVE A REVIEW

That helps more than you know. It tells the algorithm that this white trash right here is worth listening to.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddy-tissues/id1896925409

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/daddy-tissues-6514529

💸 THE SWEAR JAR

Every “fuck” costs me a quarter.

Bail me out here: https://daddy-tissues.captivate.fm/support

📱 SOCIALS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daddy.tissues.podcast

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTSHPhqwR/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@daddy.tissues.podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ECbqyrWpk/

Website: https://daddytissuespodcast.com

Music: “Do It Anyway” by Scarlett Solo, used under license.

Disclaimer: Daddy Tissues is a personal storytelling podcast for entertainment, reflection, and connection. It is not therapy, legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, or a replacement for professional support. Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect privacy.

📚 THE WHOLE STORY, IN ORDER: every episode, start to finish