Dear Jordan… Why We Put Ourselves Last | Healing Childhood Emotional Neglect

In this deeply personal episode of Dear Jordan, I reflect on a simple conversation with my seven-year-old daughter that uncovered something much bigger beneath the surface: the lifelong habit of making sure everyone else is okay before ever asking if I’m okay.What began as elementary school friendship drama turned into a conversation about emotional neglect, people-pleasing, self-worth, motherhood, and the patterns we unknowingly pass down to our children.In this letter, I open up about growing up in an environment where expressing emotional needs was often viewed as selfish, how that shaped my understanding of love and responsibility, and the difficult realization that survival patterns from childhood can quietly follow us into adulthood and parenting.We talk about:• Childhood emotional neglect• Why so many women struggle to prioritize themselves• The psychology behind people-pleasing and self-abandonment• Faith, mental health, and emotional healing• Motherhood and breaking generational cycles• Learning that your feelings matter tooThis episode is for anyone who grew up believing they had to earn love by being “easy,” “strong,” or emotionally silent.Sometimes healing starts with realizing you were worthy of care all along.