I have a stepdad I call Dad but only because he’s been in my life since I was two and I never knew my biological father (I knew the details but it was never appropriate for me to have a relationship with him and he died when I was 9). My mum and stepdad went on to have two children whom I regard as full siblings and know they do of me too. I do think it’s different when there’s only one Dad on the scene, regardless of whether he’s your bio or step dad.
It must feel natural for Edie to call Josh Daddy which is great for her and I’m sure she’s well-adjusted but it’s a massive kick in the teeth for her actual dad who, by all accounts (including Rachel’s), is very hands on and never wanted to live apart from Edie. Rachel in her book did say that he was devastated when they split and it was all her doing because she “didn’t love him enough”. Edie was only a couple of months old. R then moved Josh in and he became such a big part of Edie’s life that he was doing her night feeds (again, this is info from Rachel - she was singing Josh’s praises that he had stepped up as stepdad. What she didn’t mention is that Edie was being forcibly kept from her actual father during this time and that Josh has two bio children he’d left behind to enable him to play the stepdad role so fully).
Rachel clearly had an agenda from the start - Edie’s dad was kept out of the way during the first year or so of her life while Josh was present and clearly referred to by R as Daddy or Edie would could him Josh. She only calls him daddy because that’s how he has been spoken about to her since she was tiny. So R has manipulated this situation and again it’s her and her kids who come first and screw everyone else. Edie’s dad must have been heartbroken to learn of the situation (not to mention being refused contact with his daughter) and Josh’s boys must have been so confused. One minute daddy is living with mummy in their home, the next he’s gone and is living with a new woman with three other children, one of whom sleeps in their bed and calls him daddy
I didn’t realise you were her stepsister? Is that right? The way she portrayed her dad in her book was strange. She wrote about all these things he did for her and then ended with him being toxic. I was like hmmm...?