How To Walk Away from an Impossible Parent
How To! with Mike Pesca
Peach Fish Projects
4.3 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2020
⏱️ 31 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 | Hey how-to listeners, it's Charles Doeighig. This week's episode is about a woman who's trying to figure |
| 0:06.8 | out if she should reconcile with her father, but it's being released, as you yourself undoubtedly |
| 0:12.2 | know, during a really difficult time with protests happening in many |
| 0:16.1 | cities across the country and across the world. |
| 0:20.0 | Our show is a show that's dedicated to helping all of us become better. |
| 0:23.6 | It's dedicated to learning how to move through this world with ethics and integrity |
| 0:27.8 | by drawing on the lessons and strengths that we can offer one another. And I don't think anyone knows definitively how to |
| 0:34.9 | heal the hurt that so many people are feeling right now. But an important first |
| 0:39.7 | step is calling out injustice when we see it. And so we, the staff of how to, we wanted to acknowledge |
| 0:46.8 | that America has a long history of racism that continues today and that we believe, like many of you do, that we believe like many of you do that we must never tolerate violence |
| 0:56.5 | that's based on the color of someone's skin or on their background or their identity. |
| 1:01.7 | We stand with those who are protesting peacefully and like them we believe |
| 1:06.9 | that black lives matter. And now on to our show. |
| 1:16.0 | Can I tell you my idea? Okay, so I'm imagining sending my dad a shoebox |
| 1:20.6 | in the shape of a coffin of all this memorabilia. |
| 1:25.0 | These are the things that reminds me of you. |
| 1:28.0 | If you don't want to connect again, I understand. |
| 1:34.0 | Please feel free to bury this coffin of a shoebox. |
| 1:40.0 | Too far? |
| 1:41.0 | Yeah, maybe so. |
| 1:42.0 | Too far? Yeah, maybe so. Too far, okay. |
| 1:47.0 | Welcome to How To |
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