52. She Fought for Me When Everyone Else Gave Up | I Interview Mom on Mother's Day

For this Mother's Day special, I sat down with my biggest fan, the woman who raised me — my mom, Jackie Carr, aka Nana — for a conversation about childhood, parenting, shame, unconditional love, and what it looks like when a kid who never fit the mold grows up to become a dad who's trying to do it better. My mom was in every parent conference. She heard the same words on repeat — bright, enthusiastic, but…. doesn't stay in his seat, can't pay attention, wants to do his own thing — and while the teachers saw those as problems, she saw something else. She could see I was different and fought for me to be tested even when schools pushed back. She held me back a grade when experts said it would hurt me. She wrote notes to teachers. She showed up. She invested heavily in my love for theatre and performing. And when other parents told her she was "enabling" me, she kept supporting me anyway. Then she listened to my podcast — and found out there was something she hadn't known. This episode is a rare, honest, multigenerational conversation about what it costs to raise a kid the system keeps flagging, what unconditional love actually looks like in practice, and how the things our parents did — and didn't do — shape the parents we become. In this episode: Why my mom fought back when schools refused to test me or label me The line between advocating for your kid and enabling them Why she stopped spanking — and why the research backed her up How a diagnosis changed the way I saw myself as a kid The shame I carried that she didn't know about until this podcast What unconditional love actually looked like in our house What she sees now watching me parent Della — and what she wishes she'd done differently How watching my parents' marriage made me commit to doing it differently 👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/ Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers. It's about showing up. It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard. Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe. Follow Joe Carr on social media  Instagram: @dadicatedjoe  TikTok: @dadicatedjoe  YouTube @dadicatedjoe