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Looking back on his childhood, it seems there’s something about the way that Dax Shepard grew up as the son of a single mom that children in other family structures might not experience.
On this week’s episode of his Armchair Expert podcast, Dax said that not only did he feel responsible for protecting his mom, Laura Labo, but he also felt that the lines that defined their relationship to each other were “blurry” since he was her main emotional support, rather than a romantic partner would have been.
Dax said that as a kid, he felt compelled to protect his mom, especially where men were concerned.
During Monday’s episode of Armchair Expert, Dax and guest Taron Egerton talked about what it was like for Dax to grow up with a single mom, who he felt like he needed to “protect” against men who might try to hit on her while they were in public.
“I remember, dude, my mom has [a] big [chest],” Dax said. “My mom would occasionally wear a [expletive] white tank top, and I just remember like, ‘Oh [expletive] man. We’re going to the grocery store. She’s in the white tank top. There’s gonna be like weird dudes that just start talking to her.’ I hated it.”
He later admitted it was “hard to escape” that protective feeling.
“If you’re raised by a single mother, as I was, you’re out in the world, and you become aware of how dudes are looking at your mom, how people are talking to your mom,” he said. “It’s like that role that you somehow subconsciously know is supposed to be filled by someone else to protect her, is now on your shoulders.”
He added that the line between child and partner was “blurry”for him and his mom.
Feeling like he had to fill that role of “protector” and emotional support for his mom that someone she was married to or dating would have normally filled made Dax feel like there was a “blurry line between child and partner.”
“You are filling in some gaps because they don’t have anyone there to share their day with,” he said. “You just take on a role that is a little more complex than otherwise, I think.”
Dax also shared how he feels about his late father today.
He had a complicated relationship with his father, Dave Robert Shepard Sr., who died of cancer in 2012, but said he’s come to understand him more as he gets older and is now a dad himself.
“I think we were very similar more than I ever wanted to admit,” he said. “I think the way we got injured and the way we protected ourselves was just like a match made in hell, for the most part.”
Nobody has a perfect family, and no one is a perfect parent themselves. But good for Dax for being so thoughtful about the way he sees his own parents, even if it’s years later. Single moms really are heroes.
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