March 25, 2025

💙 Unspoken Truths of Fatherhood: A Dad’s Love, Sacrifice & Pride | We Are the Hansons Podcast 🎙️

💙 Unspoken Truths of Fatherhood: A Dad’s Love, Sacrifice & Pride | We Are the Hansons Podcast 🎙️

Fathers carry so much on their shoulders—yet so much of it goes unspoken. In this deeply heartfelt episode of We Are the Hansons, we open up about the thoughts, emotions, and sacrifices that dads rarely talk about. From the quiet moments of worry and responsibility, to the overwhelming love and pride for our children, fatherhood is a journey filled with unspoken truths. We discuss: 👨‍👧‍👦 The sacrifices dads make that often go unnoticed
❤️ The endless love a father carries for his children
🏆 How proud dads truly are—even when they don’t always say it
💭 The thoughts that weigh on a father’s heart every day This is a conversation every dad—and every family—needs to hear. If you’re a father, have a father, or love a father, this one’s for you. 🎧 Tune in now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms! 💬 What’s something a dad in your life has done that you’ve never forgotten? Share your stories in the comments!

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Welcome to We are the Hansens.

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I'm your host for today's show, Jeremy Hansen, and today

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I want to talk.

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About things that are always on a dad's mind. I've

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went through a lot of things in my mind.

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With fifteen kids and a wife and a small business,

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there's just a lot of things that dad's you know,

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we're not going to be good at communication, so a

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lot of this is behind the time.

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But if you're a child.

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Listening to this, I guarantee that this has been on

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your mind.

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If you're a wife, maybe you little tifferent too. And

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if you're the husband, you're the dad. It's okay to

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talk about this stuff.

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It's not until later in life that you understand the importance.

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The things that you think and the battles that you have.

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And you know, I do think that sometimes it's okay

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to be stoic as a man, and I definitely think

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that sometimes you have to let your kids learn lessons

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on their own. And unfortunately, you know, pain is the

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best teacher. Literally, like you can you can try to

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guide your children, but you have to be supportive.

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In what they do.

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And you know, you we're going to get into that

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a little bit but I think the number one thing

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on a father's mind all the time is have I

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shown enough love that they know how much I love them?

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You know, with your kids, because I'll tell you what

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a father's love. It's like an ocean. It's deep and

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it's vast and it's wide. Now most people know, most

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fathers are not what you would consider the most loving

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people in the world comparatively to the mothers. I try

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to be and I try to show my love, but

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it's always on your mind, always in the back of

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your mind, love.

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Did I do this right? Did I do that right? Have?

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You know?

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Have I done these things so they know how much

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I love them? You know, It's just it's one of

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those things that's always on your mind. And every dad

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will tell you that, but very rarely do they talk

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about it. You know, you worry as a dad, have

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you done enough? No matter how much you provide, no

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matter how much you worked, you constantly question yourself. Have

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I given everything to them that they need? Have I

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given everything of myself to make sure that they can prosper?

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Not just things, but in time, but in wisdom?

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You know, love.

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Here's the thing. You're a dad that has enough time

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with your kids. Usually that means that financially you're not

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pulling your weight, you're not doing as much as you can.

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And then the other side to that coin is if

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you're giving financially and you you know, are sacrificing the time,

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it's a catch twenty two. It's very very rare where

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you get to have the proper amount of time and

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the proper amount of money because there's always more, there's

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always more of each.

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And as a father, your constant have I done enough?

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Have I?

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Every single day when you go to bed, you look

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yourself in the mirror. You know, you jump out of

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the shower and you're shaving. Have I done enough?

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Have I?

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It's a constant thing and I think it can drive

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you nuts after a while, but you kind of learn

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to compartmentalize it, if you know what I mean. One

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thing with fathers because of you know what we are

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and who we are with our daughters.

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And our sons both.

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Every time your child heartbreaks, I mean for anything, your

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heartbreaks with it.

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You know, it doesn't matter if it's us.

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You know, you're playing out there and your kids scrapes

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their knee, you know, or you know if they're in

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in one of their boyfriend girlfriend relationships, or you know

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they get a bad test grade, or you know, with us,

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it was you know, they went out and you know

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we're wrestling, you're playing basketball or something, and they had

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a heartbreaking loss. Dads are right there. I mean, you

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feel it. You don't act like you feel it, but man,

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do you feel it. Every time your kid kid's heart

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breaks for whatever reason, you're right there with it. I

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think that this is important to be quiet about for fathers,

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but you know, you do think about it that all

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the things that you sacrifice. You know, when you start

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having kids, you know, dad's kind of changed. Dads aren't

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out there trying to get the attention of mom anymore.

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You take her on dates and stuff like that, but

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you know they don't wear as nice as clothes, and

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you know the dreams that they had, a lot of

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their dreams get replaced for the dreams that you have

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for your children. You know, the longer hours at work,

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wanting to be somewhere but you can't because you lose

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time because of your financial obligations. The things that we've

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done so they could have more, and you know you'd

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never mentioned that. I think it's good not to mention

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that because I think it's a cycle of life.

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I think that as.

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You grow up, the more and more you grow up,

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the more you see how much your parents sacrifice for you.

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And I think that that's healthy. I think that that's

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a timeline progression in everybody's life that helps them, at

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the right time, become the person that they need to be.

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But it's something that's always always on a day's mine,

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you know, even with the wives. This next one, man,

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I can't tell you how many times you know, a.

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Dad stays awake, you know, just are they okay? What

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are they doing? And it's the weirdest stuff too.

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It's not just you know, like a teenage boy getting

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the motorcycle and they're gone, and or you know, the

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daughter goes on a date and she's late.

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It's not just those things.

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It's when you first bring a baby home and you

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get up and you go you go look and you

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see you see him in the crib and you're like,

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are they breathing?

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Do you know? Do I touch them?

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It's those types of things you just you never knew.

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Or your adult kids, you know, they go and they're

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they're into a new job, and you know they're having

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a few problems, and you sit and you lie awake

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all night thinking, Okay, how how can I help them?

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How can I you know, help them without offending them?

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What can I do? And it's it's just this night

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after night, you know, if your kid was sick or

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for some reason, you know your heartstrings were pulling and

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you were thinking about your child, or you know, you

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were just praying that you're safe and happy, and you

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know it's the worry that dads a lot of times

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they try not to show that they're worrying, but I

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can tell you this, as a dad, You're worrying all

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the time, all the time.

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The worry never stops.

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The amount of worry and the pressure from the worry,

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well that varies, but the whole thing is it never

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goes away.

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Ever.

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I think this is another one where this next one

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where as a dad, you're very reluctant to share this,

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and you know, I think that it's okay sometimes, but

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I also think that sometimes you need to keep it

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to yourself. And it was you know, a man, I

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have been scared way way more times than I've ever

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let on. You know, it could be a long trip

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and something worried about the car. Could be you know,

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you know, your kids doing something for the first time.

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It could be, you know, am I going to get

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enough hours this week to make sure that the bills

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are paid? It could be as simple as, man, I

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really want my kid to have this. You know, they've

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they've really really tried hard. How am I going to

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put enough finances together to get that form?

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You know?

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And then as a father, when it comes to the way,

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am I making the wife happy? Is she okay in this?

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And it's a scared feeling. It's a scared feeling all

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the time. Not that you lack confidence or anything else.

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It's just that you have responsibilities, and the responsibilities that

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you have are for more.

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Than just your life.

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So it's a fear thing that you really really try

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hard to get over and you really really really try

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to not let anybody see that. Yeah, you know what,

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Dad's they get scared. They get scared a lot. You know,

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am I protecting you enough? Is there going to be

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a bill that comes up that I don't know about?

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Am I doing the right thing to protect your future?

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And you know, am I showing you enough wisdom? And

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things like that? So you can go make good choices

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on your own. You're always scared of failure when it

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comes to the important things in life. And the only

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thing you can do is live life. That's the only

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thing that you can do. And the only thing you

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can do to prepare your kids for the world that's

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coming is you have to know that it's a cruel world.

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It's not a fair world, and you have to prepare

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your kids for that world. And to this day that

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still terrifies me. Did I do enough? Not that I

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don't have confidence in my kids, but did I do

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enough to prepare them for the things that I know

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that they're going to face?

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Did I?

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And that's you know, that's something that dad's just don't

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talk about. You know another thing, I was just reminded

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of this the other day. So my son's seventeen. He

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wants a motorcycle. I'm scared to death of him getting

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a motorcycle. You know, I know that he does stupid

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things just like I did at his age, And it

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terrifies me to see my mistakes that I made in

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my younger years happen with my children. You know, it's

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funny when you watch your kids, you're so happy, you

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can see in the areas where they are better or

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where you've always.

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Been working on.

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But then every once in a while they kind of

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stumble into the thing and it's.

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Like you reflect on your own flaws.

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And then you literally you get on your knees in

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your pray and you're like, man, please let him learn

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faster than I did.

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Don't let him get hurt.

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You know, those those things, the mistakes you see and

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the you know, being terrified of you know what could

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happen because you remember what you did.

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And it's hard.

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It's very, very hard because as a dad, the last

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thing you want to be is a hypocrite.

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Okay, yeah I did that, but I'm not going to

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let you do that.

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You don't want to be a hypocrite, but you also

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want to be the protector, the provider. So the mistakes

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you made you see reflected and it just makes you

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think about all the things that you did and how

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lucky we are. And then you know something, Maybe I

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don't tell my kids enough. Maybe dads in general don't

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tell their you know, kids enough, But man, I am

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proud of my kids. I am more proud of my

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children than they will ever know. They will ever know.

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I don't ever want them to quit striving for perfection

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and whatever they do, but I think that it's to

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them to learn that perfection is always what you're chasing. Okay,

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your goal should be perfection, but you never hit your goal.

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You just keep getting better and better and better in

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every single aspect of your life, of your kids's life.

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But you can't tell them that because I think that

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that discourages them from doing that. So eventually they're going

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to learn that, hey, perfection, that's what we strive for.

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Are we ever going to get there? No, because it's

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a learning journey, it's a life journey. And that's the

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other thing that as dads, we don't really say we

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want our kids to go live the funnest, you know,

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craziest life that they can and build as many memories

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as they can. But when we start thinking about that

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and we start how do you say that to somebody? Well,

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then you start remember bring your own flaws and the

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things where you were you know, really really lucky. So

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you know what, maybe I should tell my kids. I'm

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proud of them more, and I think they know by

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the way that I lived that I want them.

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To go live life to the fullest.

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Go try things, go do things, don't you know, sit

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there and get a nine to five and be completely

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miserable with your life. You only get one of these

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things called life. You only get one. And you want

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to see your children succeed, and you want to see

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them learn valuable lessons with the least amount of pain possible.

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And you love them more than they will ever know,

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and you're more proud of them than they will ever know.

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But I think every father, or at least every father

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that actually cares, has these same things go through their head.

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So and you know when you look at dad, and

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you know, most of the time dads are kind of quiet.

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They do a lot of things that you don't really

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see until you're older. They have a lot of worries

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that are unspoken. But the love from Dad, the caring

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and the protection, it is constant. It's unwavering and it

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will last until the day I die. Excuse me, that's

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the show for today. I know it's a quick little show,

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but it was just something that was on my heart,

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and I thought that I should get rid of, you know,

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just to allow people to say, hey, you know what,

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maybe that puts dad in a little bit different reflection.

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Maybe maybe he's right. Think about that, folks. I love

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you guys, and thank you for being here.

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Let