How To Fight With Your Parents

How To! with Mike Pesca

Peach Fish Projects

Education, How To

4.3 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's been two decades since Maggie's mom has gone to the doctor and her health is incredibly….shaky. Maggie's mom has severe asthma and allergies which has basically isolated her from the world. With isolation has come anger and bitterness. Maggie is at a loss. She's tried everything she can think of yet her mother refuses to get help. On this episode of How To!, we bring on Elizabeth Berg, a nurse-turned-bestselling novelist who has penned some 30 books, many focusing on family drama. Her latest is a touching memoir called I'll Be Seeing You, which follows her perfectly imperfect parents as they've gotten older. Elizabeth has some hard-earned wisdom for Maggie, and all of us, about navigating a contentious relationship with our aging parents.

If you liked this episode, check out "How To Embrace Your Anti-Vax Family This Holiday Season" and "How To Get a Stubborn Parent to Listen."

Do you have a question with no easy answers? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius.
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0:23.7	Coming to headphones near you on can agree not her best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important
0:21.1	figures. Talk about genius. Talk about generational talent. Coming to headphones near you on April 17th,
0:25.9	with a first guest you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.2	There was one time where I drove her home. I was like 21 and she was having a severe attack and I begged her to let me drive her to the
0:40.7	emergency room and she just would not let me and I drove that way just fearful she was just going to
0:47.6	die in the car and there was nothing we could do about it. You're listening to How To. I'm Amanda Ripley.
0:56.6	Do you remember the first time you realized your parents were not perfect, just human?
1:03.1	As a kid, that realization can be kind of shocking, right?
1:07.0	Then as we age, our parents do too. And they become even more human.
1:14.4	Our listener this week, who we're calling Maggie, thinks about this a lot.
1:18.5	Maggie's from North Dakota and has an extremely full family life, including four kids, a husband,
1:24.4	a dog, siblings.
1:26.5	Both of her parents are still around, but one of them is causing
1:29.2	her a ton of worry. My mother has severe asthma and allergies, and growing up, I would see her
1:39.9	laying in bed for days, wheezing, barely able to talk, crawling around the house because her back
1:47.2	was out of place, just really suffering. Her mom is only in her mid-60s, but as you heard, her health
1:55.6	is shaky. And it doesn't help that her last doctor's visit was nearly 20 years ago.
2:01.6	We all would say, Mom, can you please go to the doctor?
2:05.6	Because right now, half the time my mom cannot talk to you on the telephone.
2:10.6	She can only text or email because her breathing is so bad.
	...

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