Jana Kramer's Ex Mike Caussin Shares His Thoughts on Their Kids Calling Allan Russell 'Dad': 'That's a Tough One'

Jana Kramer is opening up about whether her kids, whom she shares with ex Mike Caussin, call her new husband Allan Russell "Dad."

On this week's episode of her podcast Whine Down with Jana Kramer, the country singer and actress, 40, was joined by Russell, 43, and Caussin, 37, as the three discussed how they co-parent Kramer and Caussin's daughter Jolie, 8, and son Jace, 5. While they discussed their relationships, Kramer asked what Caussin thought about her older kids calling Russell "Dad."

“That’s a tough one. They’ve never called Allan 'Dad' at my house," Caussin says. "I’m not going to sit here and tell them you can’t call him what you want to call him."

“Which we also had a conversation about that too,” Kramer responds. “All three of us, remember, when we had a conversation last year when I was pregnant with Roman."

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"And we’re like, ‘We can’t say what they can and can’t do. If they want to call him the Easter Bunny, they can call him the Easter Bunny. They can call him whatever he wants,'" she continues. "I’m not going to say you have to call him dad.” 

“Yeah, and you don’t. No one has to do any kind of correcting. But that one stings the most," Caussin says. "If I were to hear it, or if the kids tell me, ‘Oh, Mom told us to call him Dad.’ That would send me.”

Russell jumped in, adding that it would never happen because he'd never allow the kids to call him "Dad" in Caussin's presence.

“Yeah I think the only thing is, with now Roman, it’s more like I still say Allan 90 percent of the time, but sometimes I’ll be like, ‘Go give this to Dad,' " Kramer says, referring to her and Russell's son Roman. "Because it’s Roman."

“And that I’m cool with and I’m able to separate myself to a degree," Caussin says. "But yeah that’s just the hardest thing. Again, it’s like missing moments with the kids. It is what it is. Comes with the territory.”

Russell went on to add that he doesn't think the kids will ever call him "Dad" since they're old enough to discern who is their dad and who is their stepdad.

"It’s not like I’ve been with the kids since they’ve been 1 year old, 6 months old, where it would be any different. Sure, sometimes it might slip out of their mouth definitely. I don’t think it’ll ever be a habit," Russell says. "I don’t think they’ll ever constantly call me 'Dad.' I think they’re at an age where…this has all kind of happened where they’re at an age where they’re old enough.” 

“Yeah, at this point they kind of call you what they call you," Caussin says. "But I defend that, it’s like, a father or a dad is someone who provides, protects, takes care of a child, whether biological or not. So, you know, you’re still worthy of the title obviously. But yeah, the kids know."