How To Walk Away from an Impossible Parent
How To! with Mike Pesca
Peach Fish Projects
4.3 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Sydney's dad texted her, "Do me a favor and lose my number," she was crushed. At 27, Sydney has always had a rocky relationship with her dad, but she held out hope he could still be a part of her life. Now she's starting to think it's a lost cause. On this episode of How To!, we bring in Joshua Coleman, a psychologist and author of the upcoming book Rules of Estrangement, who had his own yearslong standoff with his daughter. Before Sydney figures out if she should reconcile with her dad, Josh says, she has to stop internalizing how he treats her. It's the parent's job to be mature and if they can't do that, you shouldn't beat yourself up over their failings. In the end, the best thing may be to just move on without them.
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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. |
| 0:22.6 | Talk about generational talent. |
| 0:23.7 | Coming to headphones near you on |
| 0:25.0 | April 17th with a first guest you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:30.6 | Hey, how-to listeners, it's Charles Duhigg. This week's episode is about a woman who's trying to figure |
| 0:36.9 | out if she should reconcile with her father. |
| 0:39.2 | But it's being released, as you yourself undoubtedly know, during a really difficult time, with protests happening in many cities across the country and across the world. |
| 0:49.6 | Our show is a show that's dedicated to helping all of us become better. |
| 0:53.5 | It's dedicated to learning how to move through this world with ethics and integrity |
| 0:57.2 | by drawing on the lessons and strengths that we can offer one another. |
| 1:02.4 | And I don't think anyone knows definitively how to heal the hurt that so many people are feeling right now. |
| 1:08.5 | But an important first step is calling out injustice when we see it. |
| 1:13.1 | And so we, the staff of how-to, we wanted to acknowledge that America has a long history |
| 1:18.5 | of racism, that continues today, and that we believe, like many of you do, that we must never |
| 1:25.6 | tolerate violence that's based on the color of someone's skin |
| 1:28.6 | or on their background or their identity. |
| 1:31.5 | We stand with those who are protesting peacefully, and like them, we believe that black lives matter. |
| 1:39.5 | And now, on to our show. |
| 1:43.8 | Could I tell you my idea? |
| 1:46.0 | Okay, so I'm imagining sending my dad a shoebox in the shape of a coffin of, like, all this memorabilia. |
| 1:55.0 | These are the things that reminds me of you. |
| 1:57.7 | If you don't want to connect again, I understand, please feel free to bury this coffin of a shoebox. |
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