They weren’t even allowed to cry.

Sometimes it was their father putting hands on Ash.

Sometimes it was their grandmother threatening to send them to their room if they showed any emotion.

So I stopped saying goodbye in the driveway.

This episode is about the violence of drop-offs, and how I learned to reroute love — how I started pulling over a few blocks away just so we could have a moment to hug, to say hello, to say goodbye. Because the driveway wasn’t safe. But I could still create something that was.

It’s also about the road trips, the exhaustion, the music, the Ohio hotel with the water park — and how I mothered in the margins of what was left to me.

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In this episode:

• Emotional abuse at drop-off
• Creating safety through routine and ritual
• Road trip traditions: hotel stops, goodie bags, and Johnny Cash
• Grieving a life you’re still building
• Loving children through state lines and silences

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Start from Episode 1 to understand the full story. Each chapter builds on the last.

Don’t Call Me is written and hosted by Em.