Flipping Out star Jeff Lewis was surprised and worried after learning that his 2-year-old daughter is now referring to her nanny as “mom.”
Jeff may be a famous reality star but he’s no stranger to awkward parenting moments. Monroe, his nearly three-year-old daughter whom he shares with his estranged partner, Gage Edward, recently threw her dad for a loop after she started calling her nanny, Cecilia, “mom.”
“Monroe started a new preschool,” Jeff shared as he attempted to explain the situation to listeners on Tuesday’s episode of his XM Radio show, Jeff Lewis Live. “There’s a lot of moms there dropping off their kids. Even though Gage and I pick up and take Monroe to school, spend a lot of time with Monroe, she started calling our nanny ‘Mom.'”
“And she’s now starting to say, ‘I want to go on the slide with mom’ and ‘I want to go out there with mom.’ Now, I just sit there paralyzed and panicked and not know what to say, so I’ve literally not addressed it. What do I say to her?” Jeff asked a therapist and guest-host named Dr. Donna Dannenfelser, who then offered some advice on the sensitive matter.
“Monroe is 3,” stated Dr. Donna. “And she’s seeing the other 3-yr-olds with mom. They’re calling a female mom. In her mind, she’s now developing subconscious irrational tapes. So, if she’s confused or if she’s afraid, she’s going to make sense of whatever is happening in that environment. So she has her dad and there’s a female there. In her mind she’s saying, ‘Oh, that must be mom.’”
When it came to how Jeff should handle the situation, the therapist stated he could simply do nothing about it.
“You can talk to her if you wanted to,” she advised. “You either can let it go and just let her ride that out. It’s about the conversation. She might be looking for her mom. I don’t know how you’re going to approach that… She’s looking for the female.”
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But given Jeff’s legal standing with Alexandra Trent, the surrogate mother who gave birth to Monroe nearly three years ago, any talk of “mom” wasn’t really a viable option.
“Well her mom sued me, so we’re not going to be meeting mom,” Jeff joked, referring to the lawsuit the woman served him, Gage, Bravo and Flipping Out‘s production company which has since been dropped.
Understandably, Jeff was concerned about how to handle the situation and didn’t want to traumatize his daughter by correcting her.
“I was telling Cecilia like maybe you could say, ‘I love you and you’re so important to me but I’m not your mom.’ Is that okay? I don’t want to f—k her up,” shared Jeff.
The psychologist however approved of another idea when one of Jeff’s co-hosts suggested that Jeff could simply tell Monroe that she’s lucky to have two dads instead of having one mom and dad.
The Bravo star has had his hands full these days, given that just a month ago, his daughter was expelled from her prestigious preschool after Jeff was accused of badmouthing mothers of the school on his radio show. And as if that wasn’t stressful enough, the 49-year-old has also been fighting with his ex over custody of Monroe, and recently stated he wishes to have no further communication with his ex.
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